Saudis find U.S. hostage's head
 |  Paul Johnson Jr. and his wife, Noom |
| |
| VIDEO |
 Saudi security forces target suspected militants.
 Paul Johnson Jr. was beheaded by his captors in Saudi Arabia.
 Secretary of State Powell condemns the killing as barbaric.
 CNN analyst: Beheading could backfire on terrorists.
|
|
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Saudi security forces carrying out a major anti-terrorist operation have found the head of slain U.S. hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., a Saudi Interior Ministry official said.
Authorities discovered the head in a freezer at a villa where weapons and ammunition also were found.
A U.S. Embassy official said Johnson's family was being notified and that U.S. officials were working closely with the Saudis in the investigation.
Johnson, 49, was kidnapped and beheaded in Saudi Arabia last month. He was working as an engineer for Lockheed Martin in the capital Riyadh when he was abducted by al Qaeda militants on June 12.
He had worked on Apache attack helicopters and had lived in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade.
In Tuesday night's operation, which targeted suspected al Qaeda militants in Riyadh, Saudi security forces, police and national guard units killed at least two people and arrested the wife of the fifth-most-wanted man in the kingdom, the Interior Ministry said.
Three suspected militants were wounded in the operation, the ministry said.
The ministry would not confirm that Saleh al-Oufi, the current leader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, may be among the dead or wounded.
Al-Oufi's wife was arrested in the operation and three of his children were detained, the ministry said. Three other women also were detained.
Al-Oufi, a former prison guard, is fifth on Saudi Arabia's list of most-wanted terrorists.
At the center of the operation was what sources described as a major safehouse containing light weapons and homemade explosives.
Heavy exchanges of gunfire took place near the house, and al-Oufi's wife was arrested inside, the security sources said.
The sources said it's believed the raid disrupted a planned operation.
Security forces and other units began encircling suspected militants in the King Fahd district in the northern part of the city late Tuesday.
Residents in the district told CNN the gunbattle began around 11:15 p.m. (4:15 p.m. ET) and was intense for several minutes.
Police carrying automatic weapons and wearing flak jackets blocked off all streets in one portion of the district, an area of about one square mile. That section is made up of residential neighborhoods and shopping areas.
More than 100 law enforcement vehicles -- including armored vehicles mounted with heavy machine guns and trailers carrying portable floodlights -- descended on the area along with five busloads of security force reinforcements.
Sources said that while forces surrounded the suspected safehouse, a group of suspects tried to break through the police cordon but were turned back.
Some security forces then pursued that group, which fled in a Jeep, firing their weapons.
There is speculation that the operation was undertaken based on information gathered from the interrogation of some 61 people who have taken advantage of the government's offer of leniency for wanted militants.
The monthlong leniency offer expires Friday. Crown Prince Abdullah has said that after that date militants will face forceful consequences.
The government said the program exempts terror suspects from the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, but does not exempt them from civil suits filed by their victims' families.
Dozens of militants accept offer
In recent days, 27 militants from outside the country and 30 from inside Saudi borders have turned themselves in, the Interior Ministry said.
Of the 61 who have surrendered, two are said to be linked to al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. (Full story)
 Police at the scene of the shootout | |
Al Qaeda supporters have waged a yearlong campaign of violence targeting Westerners, government sites and oil workers in the kingdom, prompting some foreigners to flee the country, the world's biggest oil exporter.
Othman Al-Omari, number 19 on Saudi Arabia's most wanted list of 26, accepted the offer of limited amnesty, according to Saudi sources. He turned himself in June 27.
He was a business partner of Shaban Al Shihri -- the first al Qaeda member to accept the offer when he turned himself in June 25.
The amnesty program was announced days after Johnson was kidnapped and beheaded. His kidnappers had demanded release of all al Qaeda prisoners and the departure of all Westerners from the kingdom.
Shortly after photographs of Johnson's body were posted on an Internet site, Abdel Aziz Al-Muqrin, the self-proclaimed military leader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, and three other terrorists were killed in a gunbattle with Saudi police, and 12 other suspected members of the cell were captured.
Shortly after al-Muqrin's death, al-Oufi was named the al Qaeda chief in Saudi.
Al Qaeda is blamed for a wave of terror attacks stretching for more than a year.
Al Qaeda attacks during the weekend of May 29 in the Saudi oil city of Khobar left at least 22 people dead -- 19 of them from other countries.
A car bombing last November believed to be the work of al Qaeda struck a mostly Arab neighborhood near Riyadh's diplomatic quarter, killing at least 17 people and wounding 122 others.
In May of 2003, triple al Qaeda car bombings in Riyadh killed 23 people, plus the 12 bombers, at three complexes housing Westerners.
