A U.S. national was shot dead in Malaz suburb in Riyadh city at 4.00 p.m. Saturday, the Police Director General of Riyadh Region said. He was shot in the back as he parked his car in his home garage.
A purported al-Qaeda statement posted on a Web site late Saturday claimed the it had killed one American and kidnapped another in Riyadh. It threatened to treat the captive as U.S. troops treated Iraqi prisoners. For its part, the U.S. Embassy said it was searching for an American who was missing.
The statement said it would deal with the American, identified as Paul Johnson just as "the Americans dealt with our brothers in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib."
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, terrorizing them and displacing them in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq," said the statement.
It said al-Qaeda would release a videotape later to show Johnson's confessions and list its demands.
A Lockheed Martin spokesman confirmed to The AP that Johnson was a Lockheed employee.
Meanwhile, Saudi police on Saturday located a vehicle rigged with explosives in a suburb of Riyadh, Saudi-owned television station Al Arabiya reported.
Eyewitnesses saw a car which police were preparing to tow away after cordoning off an area of north Riyadh where an Islamic university is located. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
