久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

  Home>News Center>World
         
 

Al Qaeda deadline to kill U.S. hostage looms
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-19 00:41

Thousands of Saudi security officers backed by FBI agents scoured Riyadh for an American hostage held by al Qaeda, while the engineer's family pleaded for his life before a Friday deadline to kill him.


This image posted on an Islamic website on June 15, 2004 shows a blindfolded U.S. hostage being held in Saudi Arabia Paul Johnson. The family of an American engineer held hostage by al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia pleaded for his life as a June 18 deadline to kill him loomed. [Reuters]

Osama bin Laden's network has said it will execute Paul Marshal Johnson, kidnapped last week, unless the Saudi government frees jailed militants. It has not said at what exact time the deadline Friday expires. Saudi officials insist the kingdom will not give in to the group's demands.

"Please release my father. He is an innocent man. He loves Muslims. Saudi Arabia was his home," Johnson's son Paul told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television from the United States.

Johnson's Thai wife Thanom urged U.S. authorities to save her husband. "When I see pictures of my husband, I hurt so much, I fall to the floor," she said in broken English. "He is sick man, he need medicine. He hasn't done anything wrong."

A senior Saudi official in Washington, who declined to be named, said a team of about 20 FBI agents specialized in hostage rescue and negotiations were working alongside the Saudis.

He said that for the past two days, more than 15,000 Saudi officers and security forces have been searching throughout Riyadh for Johnson, going door-to-door in some neighborhoods considered hotbeds for al Qaeda militants and sympathizers.

"More than 1,200 Saudi homes have been searched as of Thursday night. The searches continue," he added.

Prominent Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh bin Abdullah al-Humaid, in a sermon at Muslim Friday prayers in Mecca's Grand Mosque, denounced hostage-taking and murder as grave sins under Islam, the most senior Saudi cleric to do so.

"Killing a soul without justification is one of the gravest sins under Islam, it is as bad as of polytheism," the state-appointed cleric said at Islam's holiest shrine.

"Whoever kills any person under our protection will not go to heaven. The blood of people under our protection is forbidden...they are on par with Muslims," he added.

His comments, however, are unlikely to sway al Qaeda, which is fighting to topple the pro-U.S. monarchy and drive Westerners out of the world's largest oil exporter.

U.S. WARNS OF MORE ATTACKS

The State Department warned U.S. citizens in Saudi Arabia Thursday of serious threats to their safety and repeated advice strongly urging them to leave the kingdom, which has been battling al Qaeda for the past year.

Johnson's kidnapping, which follows a spate of suicide bombings and shootings in the past six weeks, has raised the stakes in al Qaeda's war against the Saudi government.

Washington said it would use every appropriate resource to gain Johnson's release but would make no concessions. De facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah, showing no sign of compromise, said the kingdom would strike soon against al Qaeda.

In an interview with NBC's "Today" show Thursday, the hostage's visibly upset son, Paul Johnson Jr., urged the Saudi and American governments to cut a deal with the kidnappers.

Johnson, an employee of U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, is the first Westerner to be kidnapped in a wave of militant attacks in the kingdom that began more than a year ago.

Al Qaeda said it carried out the attacks and kidnapping to avenge U.S. abuse of Muslim prisoners. Tuesday, the group released a video on a Web site showing a blindfolded Johnson.

Al Qaeda, blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, has vowed 2004 will be "bloody" for the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, has arrested or killed scores of militants in a crackdown on al Qaeda. But Riyadh has so far failed to reassure tens of thousands of Westerners on how it plans to protect them or thwart further attacks.



 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Al Qaeda deadline to kill U.S. hostage looms

 

   
 

Taiwan's military build-up sabotaging peace

 

   
 

Japan slow to dispose bombs

 

   
 

Electricity rate hike hearings to be held

 

   
 

Real estate sector cools as brakes work

 

   
 

Watchdog: Textiles imports low quality

 

   
  Al Qaeda deadline to kill U.S. hostage looms
   
  Pakistan kills pro-Al Qaeda tribal warrior
   
  Iraq insurgents clash with U.S. forces
   
  Bush insists on Iraq-al Qaeda links
   
  Renegade Afghan overruns provincial capital
   
  Car bombs kill 41, wound nearly 150 in Iraq
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  News Talk  
  Does the approval of UN resolution on Iraq end daily bloodshed there?  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 成人欧美精品大91在线 | 特级无码a级毛片特黄 | 亚洲一区 中文字幕 久久 | 久章草在线观看 | 久久福利国产 | 日韩一级精品视频在线观看 | 99久久精品免费看国产一区二区三区 | 欧美人成在线观看网站高清 | 特黄aa级毛片免费视频播放 | 亚洲国内 | 在线精品国产成人综合第一页 | 免费看亚洲 | 欧美整片在线观看 | 成人在线网址 | 亚洲国产欧美日韩精品一区二区三区 | 亚洲视频一区二区在线观看 | 天天看有黄有色大片 | 欧美视频在线观看一区二区 | 亚洲男人天堂久久 | a毛片免费全部在线播放毛 a毛片免费视频 | 国产黄色片在线免费观看 | 久久久网久久久久合久久久久 | 一级毛片欧美大片 | 99在线播放视频 | 精品国产_亚洲人成在线高清 | 国产精品高清视亚洲一区二区 | 日韩黄色免费观看 | 国产最猛性xxxxxx69交 | 国产一区二区在线免费观看 | 毛片在线免费观看网站 | 成人欧美日韩高清不卡 | 国产三级在线免费观看 | 国产成人毛片亚洲精品不卡 | 日韩一区在线播放 | 颜值超高的女神啪啪 | 日本视频在线观看不卡高清免费 | 国产一区二区三区四区波多野结衣 | 一本色道久久综合亚洲精品 | 男人和女人的做刺激性视频 | 美国一级毛片免费 | 午夜啪啪福利视频 |