Captors Behead U.S. Hostage in Saudi Arabia
AP
An Islamic Web site posted this image of Paul Johnson earlier this week.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (June 18) -- Al-Qaida militants beheaded an American engineer they had held hostage since last week after the Saudi government failed to meet its demands to release jailed militants, an Islamist Web site said Friday.
''As we promised the mujahideen, we have beheaded the American hostage Paul Marshall after the deadline that the mujahideen gave to the tyrannical Saudi government passed,'' said a statement signed by the Organization of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. It was posted on the al Islah Web site.
The Web site showed three pictures of what appeared to be Paul Marshall Johnson's severed head. One showed the bloodied head propped up on the back of a body in an orange uniform with a knife on the face.
A second picture showed a hand lifting up the head and a third image showed the body and the severed head from a different angle.
''This act of revenge is to heal the hearts of believers in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula,'' the statement said.
''This is God's voice rising in anger... at the treatment of Muslims in Abu Ghraib, al-Hair (prison), Guantanamo, Ruwais (Saudi prison) and others,'' it added, referring to U.S. military prisons in Abu Ghraib, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Johnson was an employee of defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which manufactures U.S. helicopter gunships.
AP
Little Hope for Hostage
Al-Qaida Releases Video
Broadband Only
Vigil Held for Captive
Wife Pleads for Release
Deadline Draws Near
The statement said al-Qaida had killed him because of ''what Muslims have suffered from American Apache planes and their rockets.''
06-18-04 14:06EDT
