SAUDI ARABIA Top terrorist dies in battle

COMBINED DISPATCHES
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Security forces killed the top terrorist in Saudi Arabia on Friday, shortly after an American hostage was found beheaded, Arab news reports and officials in Washington said.
The death of Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, the reputed leader of Al-Qaida in the kingdom, was a coup for the Saudi government, which has been under intense pressure to halt a wave of attacks against Westerners. In a video posted on the Internet Tuesday, a hooded al-Moqrin held an assault rifle and shouted demands for the release of Al-Qaida prisoners as a blindfolded Paul M. Johnson Jr. sat in a chair.
Saudi forces killed four other Al-Qaida militants in Friday's shootout, which came after a witness reported the license plate number of a car from which the militants dumped Johnson's body and police then stopped the vehicle at a gas station, security officials said.
Reputation as ruthless
Al-Moqrin had led Al-Qaida-related terrorists only since March, but he had established a reputation as a ruthless leader who claimed credit for car bombings and terrorist assaults that have taken the lives of dozens of people.
"This is a really big deal that he's off the streets," said a U.S. government official who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Earlier Friday, al-Moqrin's group, which calls itself Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, carried out its threat to kill Johnson after Saudi authorities refused to agree to a demand made Tuesday that they release hundreds of imprisoned militants.
Photos of body
Three photographs of a decapitated Johnson appeared on an Islamic Web site, with the warning, "For whoever comes to our country, this will be their punishment."
"We slaughtered the American hostage Paul Johnson after the deadline we gave to the Saudi tyrants," the statement said.
Shortly after discovering Johnson's body 20 miles north of the capital, Saudi police swooped down on the al-Malz neighborhood in central Riyadh and exchanged fire with Al-Qaida suspects.
Saudi officials in Washington said on condition of anonymity that five Saudi security officers were killed in the gunbattle. Two suspects escaped, said one Saudi security official who took part in the raid.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that al-Moqrin, 31, was one of the dead. A Saudi official said forensic tests would be conducted on the body to confirm his identity.
A senior Saudi official in Washington identified the other dead militants as:
UTurki al-Sahaid, said to have been involved in the May 29 shooting and hostage-taking attack on the oil hub of Khobar that killed 22 people, most of them foreigners;
UFaisal Abdulrahman Abdullah al-Dakheel, who was on the government's list of 26 most-wanted militants;
URakan al-Sakhain, the second most-wanted man and an alleged associate of the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen's port of Aden in October 2000;
Uand Ibrahim al-Drhaim, who was not identified further.
Reaction to death
Johnson's killing brought an angry response from top U.S. officials as well as from Johnson's family in New Jersey.
"If I had a machine gun, I'd take my friends and take care of it," said a tearful Wayne Johnson, the victim's brother. "I'd go over there with a machine gun and shoot them all."
Wayne Johnson said he knew that his brother's death was inevitable. "I knew it in my heart that they were going to do it," he said. "He didn't deserve it."
President Bush called Johnson's killers "barbaric people" and "extremist thugs" and vowed that Americans wouldn't be intimidated. "America will not retreat," he said.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney also had pledged to pursue the killers. "America will hunt these killers, find them one by one and destroy them," Cheney said.
Method unclear
It wasn't clear precisely how Johnson was killed, and the Saudi official said there were also doubts about when he was killed.
Unlike previous terrorist killings that were videotaped, Johnson's murder was recorded only in three still photos, all of them taken after death.
In one, Johnson's body, dressed in orange coveralls, is shown lying on its side, with his head placed atop his torso and a knife blade perched across his face.
Adel al Jubeir, the foreign policy adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, said at a news conference in Washington that forensic experts also were trying to determine when Johnson was killed.
He said it was "possible" that his captors executed him shortly after a videotape of the blindfolded hostage was posted on the Internet Tuesday along with a statement by al-Moqrin threatening to kill Johnson if the prisoners weren't released.
Warning to Americans
State Department officials in Saudi Arabia repeated a 3-month-old warning urging Americans to leave Saudi Arabia.
"There is a good possibility that the attacks will continue," said Carol Kalin, the press attach & eacute; at the U.S. Embassy here.
Johnson, 49, a native of Eagleswood Township, N.J., was kidnapped last weekend. A videotape of the blindfolded hostage was released Tuesday along with a statement by al-Moqrin, threatening to kill Johnson if the prisoners weren't released.