Abducted American faces torture from Islamic militants

Islamic militants who claim to have abducted an American in Saudi Arabia are threatening to torture him in the same way as Iraqi inmates were mistreated in a US-run prison in Baghdad.

Assailants also shot dead another American in the capital Riyadh yesterday in the latest incident in a wave of anti-Western violence in the kingdom, believed to be aimed at driving out foreigners and disrupting the vital oil sector.

None of the gunmen has been caught in the fatal shooting June 6 of an Irish TV cameraman, Tuesday’s slaying of an American contractor or the killing yesterday of another American, identified by the US Embassy as Kenneth Scroggs. BBC journalist Frank Gardner also was seriously wounded in Sunday’s attack.

Security officials said authorities were searching for the assailants. Saudi forces, they said, stormed a suburban Riyadh house, arresting a man inside and confiscating a computer. It wasn’t clear if he was linked to any of the past week’s shootings.

Witnesses said Scroggs was shot in the back by three militants as he pulled his car into the garage. The militants then moved closer and fired more shots.

The US Embassy did not identify the missing American but said it was working with Saudi officials to find him.

A purported al-Qaida statement posted on an Islamic Web site claimed the terror group had killed one American and kidnapped another in Riyadh. It threatened to treat the captive as US troops treated Iraqi prisoners – a reference to sexual and other alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The scandal has outraged Arabs and damaged Washington’s already low credibility in the region.

The statement showed a passport-size photo of a brown-haired man and a Lockheed Martin business card bearing the name Paul M. Johnson. The statement said he was born in 1955.

Security officials confirmed a suspicious car found near Imam University belonged to Mr Johnson. Saudi press reports said the car was booby trapped and later caught fire.

The statement also said Johnson is one of four experts in Saudi Arabia working on developing Apache helicopter systems and that the American killed worked in the same industry.

“Everybody knows that these helicopters are used by the Americans, their Zionist allies and the apostates to kill Muslims, terrorising them and displacing them in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq,” said the statement. It said al Qaida would release a videotape later with Johnson’s confessions and its demands.

A Lockheed Martin spokesman confirmed Johnson was a Lockheed employee but declined to say what his job was. The spokesman also said Lockheed Martin was not aware of any employees who had been killed in Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi security source said Scroggs worked for Advanced Electronics, a Saudi firm whose Web site lists Lockheed Martin among its customers. The office number on Johnson’s business card was for Advanced Electronics.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Saudi Arabia said it was authorising the voluntary departure of nonessential embassy staff and their families.

Barrie Peach said the decision was not a response to yesterday’s events but rather was “the result of consideration over the last week.”

Also British Airways staff will not spend the night in Saudi Arabia anymore, instead resting in neighbouring Kuwait.

Meanwhile Several Islamic Web sites were carrying links to a videotape – also purportedly from al-Qaida – that claims to show last Tuesday’s killing of American Robert Jacobs.

The pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired parts of the tape Sunday, showing two men surprising Jacobs as he tried to park in front of his garage then showing Jacob writhing on the ground as an attacker fired from a hand gun.

Jacobs, 62, of Murphysboro, Illinois, worked for US defence contractor Vinnell Corp.

An estimated 8.8 million foreigners work among 17 million Saudis in the kingdom, most of them in the oil sector, banking and other high-level businesses.

Militant attacks against Westerners, government targets and economic interests in the Saudi kingdom have surged in the past two months, despite a high-profile campaign against terrorists the government began after suicide bombings last year.