Saudi state television broadcast pictures today it said were of slain al Qaeda leader Abdulaziz al-Muqrin and three other militants.
Abdulaziz al-Muqrin's group posted photographs of the US hostage paul Johnson's severed head on a Web site, six days after he was seized. The Saudi government had refused to free Islamist prisoners by a Friday deadline set by the cell.
Shortly afterwards, as Muqrin and two other top militants deposited the body in the capital Riyadh, they were surrounded by Saudi security men and shot and killed, a security source said.
Muqrin was Saudi Arabia's most wanted al Qaeda leader. His death will be portrayed as a major blow to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden by the kingdom's rulers.
Johnson was the third American killed in Riyadh in the past 10 days, stepping up pressure on thousands of US citizens and other foreigners vital to the economy of the world's biggest oil exporter and on the Saudi royal family, which bin Laden has sworn to overthrow for its close alliance with Washington.