Where are the Muslims who will stand up to this foul savagery? U.S. Hostage Beheaded, Terror Group Says.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - An al-Qaida group said Friday it killed American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr, posting an Internet message that showed three photographs of a severed head that appeared to be his.

The message, in the name of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, appeared as a 72-hour deadline set by the group ended.

“In answer to what we promised … to kill the hostage Paul Marshall (Johnson) after the period is over … the infidel got his fair treatment,” the statement said.

“Let him taste something of what Muslims have long tasted from Apache helicopter fire and missiles,” the statement said.

Johnson, 49, who worked on Apache attack helicopter systems for Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped last weekend by militants who threatened to kill him by Friday if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners. The Saudi government rejected the demands …

One of the three photographs posted on the Web site showed a man’s head, face toward the camera, being held by a hand. The other two showed a beheaded body lying prone on a bed, with the severed head placed in the small of his back, the clothes underneath bloodied. The face looked like Johnson’s.

The beheaded body was dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, similar to those issued to suspected Islamic militants imprisoned by the United States at Guantanamo Bay — and similar to the suit another American captive, Nicholas Berg, was wearing when he was beheaded in Iraq last month by another group of Islamic militants inspired by al-Qaida.

“To the Americans and whoever is their ally in the infidel and criminal world and their allies in the war against Islam, this action is punishment to them and a lesson for them to know that whoever steps foot in our country, this decisive action will be his fate,” the statement said.