Tape of beheading appears on Internet

CAIRO, Egypt – Images of an American hostage being decapitated surfaced Saturday on an Internet site known for carrying the statements of Islamic militants.

The gruesome videotape appeared three days after U.S. authorities announced the search for the body of Paul M. Johnson Jr. had been called off.

Still photographs of Johnson’s beheading had been posted June 19 on some of the same militant Islamic forums that on Saturday provided links to the newly released video footage.

Johnson, a 49-year-old engineer for U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped June 12.

The video, which ran almost two minutes and included images of tanks and destroyed homes apparently in Iraq, carried the title “The Voice of Jihad: Get the infidels out of the Arabian Peninsula.”

Voice of Jihad is the name of a periodical issued on the Internet twice monthly by the al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia, which claimed Johnson’s killing.

Hours after the still photographs were released last month, Saudi security forces shot dead Abdul Aziz al-Moqrin, the leader of the al Qaeda cell in the kingdom.

On Wednesday, U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James C. Oberwetter, released a statement saying the FBI’s search for Johnson’s remains was near completion without the body being recovered.