American Shot Dead in Saudi Capital

[Phaedrus]

By Ghaida Ghantous
(Reuters)


RIYADH - A U.S. national was shot dead in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday in the third attack on Westerners in a week, adding to fears about security in the world's biggest oil-producer.

Police also found a car rigged with explosives in a suburb of the capital, Saudi-owned television station Al Arabiya said. It was not immediately clear whether there was any link between the discovery and the late-afternoon shooting.

Witnesses said the American was shot as he parked his car in front of his villa in the suburb of Malazz. "There were bullet holes in the rear window of the car and the driver's window was also shattered," one witness said.

A U.S. embassy spokeswoman said: "The victim is believed to be an American male. There has been a shooting death."

Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, blamed for the September 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, has vowed that 2004 would be "bloody and miserable" for Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally.

Fears about the security situation in the world's biggest oil exporter helped push world oil prices to record highs earlier this month before producers pledged to hike output.

Arabiya said police were chasing suspects in the east of the city. The Interior Ministry confirmed the victim was American.

In Washington, the State Department said the man's identity was still not known. "We're investigating the circumstances with the Saudis," official Adam Ereli said.

Washington has urged its citizens to leave Saudi Arabia.

"Those Americans who choose to remain here should exercise the utmost caution as they go about their daily lives," U.S. ambassador to Riyadh, James Oberwetter, said in a statement. He lauded the kingdom's "determination" to combat militants.

RIGGED CAR

Arabiya gave no details about the discovery of the car bomb, but witnesses saw a car which police were preparing to tow away after cordoning off an area of north Riyadh where an Islamic university is located. Two residential compounds are nearby.

On Tuesday, a U.S. military contractor was shot dead at his house in Riyadh in the fifth attack on Westerners in the kingdom since early May. On Sunday a BBC cameraman was killed and a correspondent wounded in a drive-by shooting in Riyadh.

In one of the biggest attacks, 22 civilians were killed when suspected al Qaeda militants went on a May 29 shooting spree and took dozens of foreigners hostage in the oil city of Khobar.

Saudi officials have so far remained silent on what measures they have taken to safeguard foreigners from militant attacks.

The attacks have heightened fears among tens of thousands of expatriates and raised doubts over the grip of security forces.

An estimated six million foreigners work in Saudi Arabia, including 35,000 Americans and 30,000 Britons.



Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah vowed on Saturday that militants would not escape justice. "There is no doubt the devil is driving them and they are supported by those against Islam," he said in comments on official news agency SPA.

The Gulf state, the birthplace of Islam, has been fighting militants for a year, arresting and killing many, including eight on a wanted list of 26 militants. Riyadh says the militants are going for soft targets after the clampdown.

 

[TheGeneral+]

THE al-Qaeda terror network claims to have kidnapped a US aeronautics engineer and killed another US national in Saudi Arabia.

A statement attributed to the group and posted on an Islamic website is backed up by photos and permits for the kidnapped man.

The US has confirmed an American is missing, and police told of the killing of another man in Riyadh this morning.

The website statement said: "Our fighters of the Fallujah Brigade in the Arabian peninsula have kidnapped an American, a Christian, Paul M. Johnson Jr. born in 1955 and working as an aeronautics engineer."

It was signed "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula."

The statement was accompanied by several photographs of the American, a copy of his work permit, driving licence and health card. He was apparently working for top US defence contractor Lockheed Martin and came from the US state of Maryland.

The US State department in Washington confirmed a US citizen had been reported missing in Saudi Arabia by his family, but declined to confirm he had been kidnapped.

"We do have an American missing in Saudi Arabia," State Department spokesman Stuart Patt said.

"We heard that an Islamic website was making a claim but we have had no direct contacts with any organisations or persons claiming responsibility.

"We are not releasing the individual's name.

"The individual has been missing since early today. He is a private US citizen, living in Saudi Arabia. His family reported him missing."

The Islamic website statement said the kidnapped man worked with Apache helicopters.

"These aircraft have long been used by the Americans, their Zionist allies and the apostates to kill Muslims ... in Palestine, in Afghanistan and in Iraq," said the statement, which could not immediately be authenticated.

"The mujahadeen reserves the right to revenge their brothers (at the US base) in Guantanamo (Cuba) and Abu Ghraib (prison in Iraq), conforming with Sharia (Islamic law)," the statement continued, promising to release video footage of the hostage's "confessions".

The group also claimed responsibility for the killing of "another American" in the same area of the capital Riyadh where it said the kidnapping took place.

A US national was killed in a drive-by shooting in Riyadh overnight, the latest in a string of attacks on Westerners in Saudi Arabia by suspected Islamist extremists since early May.

According to local security forces he worked for an electronics firm in the oil sector. He was not named.

On Tuesday, another American who worked for Vinnell Corp, which helps train the Saudi National Guard, was shot dead at his home in Riyadh.

An Irish cameraman was shot dead and a BBC journalist critically wounded in another attack in the Saudi capital on June 6, just a week after a shooting and hostage-taking rampage in the eastern oil city of Al-Khobar left 22 people dead, including four Westerners.

Six Westerners - two Americans, two Britons, an Australian and a Canadian - were killed when gunmen went on a shooting spree at a petrochemical plant in the Red Sea industrial port of Yanbu on May 1.

On May 22, a German national working in the catering department of the Saudi national carrier was shot dead in Riyadh.

The US embassy has again called on American residents to leave Saudi Arabia.

Speaking during a visit to London, Saudi Arabia's minister for Islamic affairs, Saleh bin Abdulaziz al-Shaikh, said the security situation in the kingdom had not reached crisis point despite the mounting terror.

"Of course it is a problem but it has not reached a stage of crisis in Saudi Arabia," he said.

"Our assessment of the situation is that it is controllable but, because there are sleeping cells and because the terrorists live in a crowded area, the Saudi forces do not want to hurt any of the local people."

The escalation of attacks has come despite a massive crackdown on suspected al-Qaeda sympathizers since a wave of suicide bombings began in May 2003.

Around 90 people have been killed, and hundreds have been injured, in the 13-month-long campaign of violence.

Saudi authorities have announced that they seized and successfully defused several car bombs in the past few months.


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[TheGeneral+]

CAIRO (AP) — An Islamic Web site showed videotape Tuesday of a blindfolded American hostage in Saudi Arabia, and said abductors threatened to kill him within 72 hours unless Saudi authorities free al-Qaeda prisoners.

Paul Johnson, 49, of Stafford Township, N.J., was abducted Saturday by a group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The organization is believed to be headed by al-Qaeda's chief in the kingdom, Abdullah-aziz al-Moqrin.

A hooded man read a statement on the tape. As he was reading, a subtitle on the screen identified him as al-Moqrin.

His statement was similar to a printed message on the Web site that carried the name of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It said the group gave Saudi authorities 72 hours to release "mujahadeen" militants or it would kill the hostage.

The tape, which was first aired by CNN, showed Johnson sitting in a chair with his profile to the camera, a large tattoo on his left arm. It displayed his Lockheed Martin identification card. Johnson was employed by Lockheed Martin and worked on Apache helicopters.

Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to the Saudi government, said shortly after the video appeared that the kingdom would consult with the Bush administration about how to proceed, but Riyadh like Washington has a strict no-negotiation policy.

"We don't negotiate with terrorists. We don't negotiate with hostage-takers," al-Jubeir said in an interview on CNN.

Al-Jubeir denounced the hostage-takers, but said it was premature to be able to verify any of the information on the video, saying, "We can't simply go with what appears on Web sites."

"It shows the cruel and inhumane face of the enemy we're dealing with," al-Jubeir said.

The statement on the Web site says the holy warriors of the Arabian peninsula's Fallujah Brigade has "hit" the engineering team that "oversees the development of the American Apache helicopter that attacks Muslims in Palestine and Afghanistan."

It says: "The Fallujah Brigade has killed the director of this team and kidnapped one of its engineers, Paul Johnson, and if the tyrannical Saudi government wants their American master to be released, then they have to release our holy warriors that are held in Ha'ir, Ruweis and Alisha prisons within 72 hours of this statement's date."

The day Johnson was seized, Islamic militants shot dead another American, Kenneth Scroggs, from Laconia, N.H., in his garage. Scroggs was the third Westerner killed in a week, after the shooting death of an Irish cameraman for the British Broadcasting Corp. on June 6 and another American who was killed in his garage June 8.

Saudi security forces arrested a militant north of Riyadh on Tuesday as they stepped up their presence in and around the city in a hunt for Johnson's kidnappers.

Also Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's ruling crown prince warned Islamic militants that the kingdom planned shortly to deploy more security forces than they had ever faced before.

"Be assured that the kingdom has enough men whom you haven't seen so far, but within the coming few days you will see them," Crown Prince Abdullah told the militants, whose attacks have increased during the past three months. His remarks were televised.

Westerners in Saudi Arabia are responding to the attacks by moving to high-security compounds or even to Bahrain, and by pushing for the right to armed private guards, according to diplomats and real estate agents.

Western embassies in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, are negotiating with the government for a relaxation of the ban on private security guards carrying firearms, a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-06-15-saudi-hostage_x.htm