The Hindu : International : Saudi police personnel helped us, says Al-Qaeda

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 21, 2004

International

International

Saudi police personnel helped us, says Al-Qaeda

CAIRO, JUNE 20. The Al-Qaeda cell that kidnapped and killed American Paul M. Johnson Jr. said in an online periodical on Sunday that sympathisers in the kingdom's security forces supplied it with police uniforms and vehicles and set up fake checkpoints to facilitate last week's abduction.

The details of the kidnapping appeared in Sawt al-Jihad, or voice of holy war, an online periodical published by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula.

The final article written by the cell leader, Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, killed in a shootout on Friday night, justified Johnson's slaying.

The article said militants wearing police uniforms and using police cars set up a fake checkpoint on al-Khadma Road, leading the airport, near Imam Mohammed bin Saud University.

When Johnson's car approached the checkpoint on June 12, the militants in police uniforms stopped his car detained him, anesthetised him and carried him to another car, the article said. It said they then blew up Johnson's car.

``A number of the cooperators in the security apparatus who are sincere to their religion donated those clothes and the police cars. We ask God to reward them and that they use their energy to serve Islam and the mujahideen,'' the article read.

— AP

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