Security forces 'helped kidnap murdered hostage'

The al-Qaida group that beheaded an American engineer said sympathisers in the Saudi security forces provided police uniforms and cars used during the victim’s kidnapping, according to an Islamic extremist website.

The account of the abduction of Paul Johnson, who was later decapitated, highlighted the fears expressed by some diplomats and westerners in the kingdom that militants had infiltrated Saudi security forces – a possibility Saudi officials have denied.

The article recounting the abduction appeared in Sawt al-Jihad, or Voice of the Holy War, a semi-monthly internet periodical posted by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula – the group that claimed responsibility for killing Johnson, 49.

According to the account, militants wearing police uniforms and using police cars set up a fake checkpoint on June 12 on al-Khadma Road, leading to the airport near Imam Mohammed bin Saud University.

“A number of the co-operators who are sincere to their religion in the security apparatus donated those clothes and the police cars. We ask God to reward them and that they use their energy to serve Islam and the mujahedeen,” the article read.

When Johnson’s car approached the checkpoint, the militants stopped it, detained him, anaesthetised him and carried him to another car, the article said. Earlier, Saudi newspaper reports said Johnson was drugged during the kidnapping.

In a separate article on the website, the leader of the al-Qaida cell behind the abduction, Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, justified the targeting of Johnson, pointing to his work on Apache attack helicopters for Lockheed Martin.

Al-Moqrin and three other militants were killed on Friday in a shootout with Saudi security forces hours after Johnson’s death became known.

Johnson “works for military aviation and he belongs to the American army, which kills, tortures and harms Muslims everywhere, which supports enemies (of Islam) in Palestine, Philippines, Kashmir”, wrote al-Moqrin.

Yesterday, police continued their search for Johnson’s body and the militants involved in his death.

“We are still combing through neighbourhoods. And we hope that eventually we’ll find the body and restore it to his family,” Adel al-Jubeir, the foreign affairs adviser of Crown Prince Abdullah in Washington, said on CNN’s Late Edition programme.

Police cars, armoured vehicles and a large contingent of emergency forces blockaded the al-Malaz area yesterday in a search for suspects, security officials said. Witnesses saw suspects fleeing into a house in the neighbourhood after police fired at them at a traffic light.

Hours later, the blockade was lifted and security forces left. It was unclear whether anyone was arrested.

Last night, scores of Saudi men, mostly in their 20s and 30s, paid visits to the petrol station where al-Moqrin and the three others were killed.

“This should be turned into a national monument,” said Mohamed Ibrahim Shakir. “Every Saudi should come here and pray to God. We got rid of these terrorists.”

The men counted more than two dozen bullet holes in the façade of the run-down shop.

Shopkeeper Ibrahim al-Shamari said the militant leader was shooting at security forces from behind a refrigerator when he was killed.

“Every Saudi should be proud of this. I should have brought my wife and children to see the end of this man,” Khalil bin Othman said.

One security officer was killed and two were wounded in the shoot-out, the official Saudi news agency reported.

Al-Moqrin is believed to have had a leading role in the stepped-up campaign of militant violence in Saudi Arabia, which in recent months has seen bombings and gun attacks on foreigners.

Saudi’s King Fahd said militants would not succeed in their aim to harm the kingdom.

“The perpetrators of these attacks aimed at shaking stability and crippling security, and it is a far-fetched aim, God willing,” he said in a speech to the advisory Shura Council. “We will not allow this destructive bunch, led by deviant thought, to harm the security of this nation or affect its stability.”

Sunday’s al-Qaida article said the militants decided to behead Johnson when al-Jubeir declared that Saudi Arabia would not negotiate with the kidnappers.

Asked about the al-Qaida statement, al-Jubeir said: “We have never negotiated with terrorists. We don’t intend to do so.

“I believe what the al-Qaida people were trying to do is trying to justify a murder that is unjustifiable under any faith or under any principle of humanity.”