Mohammed Rasooldeen, Arab News

RIYADH, 20 June 2004 — The Interior Ministry confirmed yesterday that Al-Qaeda’s suspected leader in Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, was one of four militants gunned down Friday night.

The security offensive came shortly after Muqrin’s “Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula” carried out its threat to execute American Paul M. Johnson and posted gruesome photos of the beheaded victim on websites.

Contradicting earlier reports, Saudi officials said yesterday that the body of Johnson had not been found.

After weeks of apparent inability to stop anti-Western terror, authorities said Friday night’s gunbattle in Riyadh also left two gunmen directly involved in the attacks dead and netted 12 suspects.

Muqrin’s death had been reported by security men, but a communiqué claiming to speak for Al-Qaeda posted on a website later denied it.

Authorities responded by airing photos of the bloodied corpses of Al-Muqrin and the other dead militants along with the Interior Ministry statement. A trickle of blood ran from the mouth of one of the militants pictured, and the teeth of another appeared smashed.

“Abdul Aziz ibn Issa Al-Muqrin, who claimed to head the gang that condemns people as infidels” and claimed responsibility “for assassinations and kidnappings” was one of the four gunmen killed, the statement said. The four “were besieged in a gas station in the Al-Malaz district of Riyadh by security forces, and a heavy exchange of fire” ensued around 9 p.m., it said.

Al-Ekhbariya showed footage of the gas station, with blood on the street and covering some merchandise inside.

The ministry identified another of the dead gunmen as Faisal Al-Dakheel, who figured on the most-wanted list and appeared in footage showing the killing of an American resident — an apparent reference to a video of the killing of Robert Jacobs.

The third was named as Turki Al-Mutairi, one of three gunmen who escaped after the shooting and hostage-taking rampage in Alkhobar last month.

The fourth was Ibrahim Al-Draihem, suspected of helping plan the bombing of a residential compound in Riyadh last November.

Al-Muqrin and Al-Dakheel were at the top of the 26-strong list of most wanted militants issued last December.

The list is now down to 16.

“He went to his fate,” Al-Riyadh newspaper quoted Al-Muqrin’s father as saying Friday night.

The ministry said a security man was also killed in the clash and two were wounded.

Twelve suspected terrorists were arrested, but their names would not be divulged “in the interest of the investigation,” the ministry said.

But a security source said one of them was a senior terrorist suspected of involvement in the 2000 bombing of the US warship Cole in Yemen.

“This man is considered one of the aides to Al-Muqrin,” the source said.

The Interior Ministry statement said security forces also seized three cars, one of which was used in the June 6 shooting attack on a BBC crew in Riyadh that left cameraman Simon Cumbers dead and correspondent Frank Gardner critically wounded.

They also seized a range of weapons and explosives, in addition to SR132,800 and another $2,900.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said terrorists would earn a victory if American workers leave Saudi Arabia in response to the terrorist attacks.

Powell said he was hopeful that Americans will remain in the Kingdom as a result of increased personal safety measures they take on their own as well as heightened protection from their employers and from the Saudi government. “If they leave, then the terrorists have won,” Powell said, only hours after Johnson’s beheading.

“I don’t think either the Saudis, the Americans, or these brave folks who work in Saudi Arabia want the terrorists to win,” he said.

James Oberwetter, the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told reporters the cooperation between the US and the Kingdom in efforts to find Johnson was “excellent”. He also praised the efforts of Saudi security forces to hunt for terrorists.

“A great deal was accomplished last evening. We also believe that much remains to be done,” Oberwetter said. “The Saudis are doing an excellent job of working on their most wanted list — and working people off that list — but not everyone who is a threat has been removed from the list and maybe there are many more.”

He also warned that the situation for Westerners in the Kingdom remains dangerous. “The US State Department has issued warnings and repeated those warnings, including yesterday, concerning the nature of the threat here,” he said

“It will be some time before we achieve a comfortable level and the situation returns to normal,” he said. “We look forward to that day but it is some time away,” he added.

Adel Al-Jubeir, an adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, said in Washington that the killing of Muqrin and his associates had “substantially weakened” Al-Qaeda.

Speaking at a news conference at the Saudi Embassy, Jubeir told America “our people are outraged” by the violent acts of Al-Qaeda.

Jubeir said reports on Friday that Johnson’s body had been found were incorrect. “The body has not yet been recovered. There was confusion yesterday about this issue. The determination that Mr. Johnson was murdered was made on the basis of technical analysis of the tape (of the beheading) by both US and Saudi experts. We do not yet know at what time Mr. Johnson was murdered,” he said. “We are searching for the body,” which is thought to be in the northern outskirts of Riyadh, he added.