SAUDI ARABIA: The man behind the murder yesterday of Mr Paul Johnson, the US contractor kidnapped in Saudi Arabia, is Abdulaziz Muqrin, whom authorities there say is the chief organiser of the recent attacks on westerners.
A Saudi native believed to be in his early 30s, Muqrin is a graduate of jihad training camps in Afghanistan. He is also a veteran of conflicts in Somalia and Bosnia, as well as Algeria, where he was part of a group known for dismembering the bodies of its enemies on videotape, according to Saudi officials and terrorism analysts.
Even so, he was a relatively unknown Islamic radical until last November when a small cell loyal to him carried out a suicide bombing at a residential compound in Riyadh that housed mostly westerners, killing 17 people and injuring 122. The attack landed Muqrin on a most-wanted list of 26 terrorist leaders named by the Saudi government.
Since then, his name recognition has soared in the Middle East, partly because many of his rivals from other Islamic underground groups have been killed or arrested, and partly because he has an unusual knack for using the Internet to gain public attention even while he is in hiding.
Muqrin's group, known as al-Qaeda, most recently accepted responsibility for kidnapping Mr Johnson. Investigators say they also believe the group plotted a series of assassinations and other attacks that have killed more than 40 people since November, most of them westerners.
In a video released on the Internet this week, a hooded man identified on the screen as Muqrin read a statement saying he would "execute" Mr Johnson in 72 hours unless Saudi officials released radicals who had been captured in recent months.
Muqrin has also said he organised an attack on a residential and office compound last month in the Persian Gulf city of Khobar. In that incident, four gunmen broke into the complex in search of westerners, killed 22 people and held dozens of others hostage. Despite being surrounded by Saudi security forces, three of the four assailants escaped, enabling Muqrin to crow in audio clips posted on the Internet that his group had taken on the Saudi government and won.
Khaled Batarfi, managing editor of al-Madina newspaper in Jeddah, said Muqrin has quickly become the public face of al-Qaeda in the region, even though it is not clear if he has any direct ties to the group headed by Osama bin Laden.
"He's making a name for himself that is now competing with bin Laden," Batarfi said. "He's speaking in his name and saying he has the same principles."