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Web video claims Riyadh killing


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Saudi Arabian militants claim responsibility for two attacks.
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- A video purported to show the killing of an American worker in Riyadh last Tuesday has been posted on a web site used by Islamic militants, but CNN has not confirmed the authenticity of the video.

Robert Jacobs, a 63-year-old employee of Vinnell Arabia, was gunned down at his home in the eastern Riyadh neighborhood of al-Khaleej, which contains several residential compounds for Westerners, according to Saudi police and his company.

The man's face is never seen in the video and there is no way to immediately confirm it is Jacobs, a native of Murphysboro, Illinois.

The video starts with Arabic text saying "The murder of the Jewish American Robert Jacob, who worked for the Vinnell espionage firm."

Pictures of wounded Arab children followed and then an 18-second clip purported to be the killing of Jacobs.

The purported attack clip began with men yelling and then a series of 10 gunshots.

One attacker is seen holding a pistol and firing it at a man who falls to the ground after the first shot. The gunman then stands above the fallen man and continues to shoot.

There is an edit in the video after the shooting stops. Two men are seen bending over their victim, one of them making a sawing motion at the man's neck.

There has been no public indication from investigators that Jacobs was beheaded.

In all, three attackers are seen in the video. Each is dressed casually, with the gunman wearing western-style sports shoes.

Saudi police said Jacobs was found dead in his home in the eastern Riyadh neighborhood of al-Khaleej, which contains several residential compounds for Westerners.

Tuesday's shooting was not far from the scene of Sunday's killing of a BBC cameraman in a drive-by shooting two days earlier that also wounded a correspondent for the network.

Earlier attacks -- including a hostage standoff in late May that ended with 22 captives dead -- have been blamed on Islamic militants battling the Saudi government.

And on Saturday a group linked to al Qaeda claimed to have kidnapped an American engineer in the Saudi capital.

And earlier Saturday, Kenneth Scroggs, an American engineer, was shot to death in the same city. (Full story)

Vinnell Arabia -- owned by the Virginia-based Vinnell Corporation, which itself is a subsidiary of defense giant Northrop Grumman -- is contracted to train and equip Saudi National Guard troops, company spokesman Kevin O'Melia said.

Vinnell Arabia has worked to train the Saudi National Guard, a 75,000-strong mechanized infantry force that reports to Crown Prince Abdullah, since 1975.

In May 2003, 10 of its employees were killed when suicide car bombings struck several expatriate residential compounds in Riyadh.


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