RIYADH, 21 June 2004 — Crown Prince Abdullah said there would be no letup in the campaign to uproot terrorism before a massive search operation for more fugitive terrorists and the body of an American hostage beheaded by Al-Qaeda got under way here.

Security officers backed by armored vehicles and helicopters yesterday closed off three neighborhoods in the capital in a pre-dawn offensive to recover the body of Paul M. Johnson and to catch more Al-Qaeda sympathizers.

Helicopters hovered over several districts and a few suburbs of the capital, eyewitnesses said. The areas searched included Al-Malaz district, the site of a gunbattle on Friday that ended with the death of Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, the mastermind of Paul Johnson kidnapping, and three other members of his cell.

Dozens of officers searched houses in different parts of the city and officers checked the cars of anyone attempting to leave the sealed-off areas.

Security agents were looking for Johnson’s body on the northern outskirts of the capital, a security officer said.

Following a tip-off, officers surrounded a house in Al-Malaz near Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Stadium, where they had been told terror suspects were hiding. No arrests were made.

The crown prince warned sympathizers to relent or face being killed too. “We tell this deviant group and others that if they do not return to the right path, they will meet the same fate or worse,” he told an audience in Jeddah Saturday night.

In remarks carried by the Saudi Press Agency, the crown prince said security forces would deal with the terrorists as well as with every aggressor in the Kingdom or abroad.

He renewed his call for people to report any suspect person to security authorities.

The crown prince said the terrorists followed “the way of Satan”, and the enemies of religion and of Saudi Arabia were behind them.

Interior Minister Prince Naif echoed the crown prince yesterday in remarks to tribal leaders and dignitaries from various parts of the Kingdom who met him to express their support to the government’s effort to crack down on terrorists. “These people have followed the devil and found some people who misled them on this course. They don’t realize that they are being driven by the enemies of religion and the enemies of this nation,” Prince Naif said.

“We will emerge triumphant, God willing, and our trust in Almighty Allah and in the people of this country is boundless,” he added.

Riyadh Governor Prince Salman joined funeral prayers for the security officer killed in the Friday night’s gunbattle with the Al-Qaeda cell in Riyadh. He described the killing of Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin and the other three terrorists as a “major national achievement and a step on the way to the elimination of the corrupt group.”

In a statement on its website yesterday, the Al-Qaeda cell confirmed Al-Muqrin’s death but threatened to continue its terror campaign. “Fighting commander Abdul Aziz bin Issa al-Muqrin fell... in the Malaz district of Riyadh,” said the statement signed by “Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”

Muqrin had died “after having prepared sincere men from among the combatants to succeed him and carry on the jihad.”

The group said it appointed a new head to succeed Al-Muqrin.

Saleh Al-Oufi, an ex-prison guard in the Ministry of the Interior, is the fifth most wanted man on a list of 26 terrorists.

After graduating from intermediate school in Al-Duwaima district in Madinah, Oufi joined the Saudi National Security Defense Training School. On graduating, he was posted to Khyber prisons as a guard and subsequently worked in public prisons in Madinah. In 1992, he was expelled on disciplinary grounds.

According to sources, Al-Oufi lacks Al-Muqrin’s organizational and operational experience.

Both US and Saudi officials hailed Al-Muqrin’s death as a major blow to Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.