Triumph and trepidation in Saudi press

The beheading of US hostage Paul Johnson and the killing of local Al-Qaeda leader Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin have sparked a wide range of reactions in the Saudi press and in Saudi-funded pan-Arab newspapers.

Some sources cheer the security forces for shooting Al-Muqrin and remind the West that the episode shows the war on terror is not a purely Western enterprise.

Others are more pessimistic, highlighting what they see as a dangerous relationship between terrorists and the media or warning that Saudi Arabia has only itself to blame for tolerating religious extremists for so long.

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The Saudi security authorities' achievement carries more than one message. First, it sends the world a message of confidence in the abilities of Saudi security personnel. Second, it was a quick response to an ugly crime committed by terrorists against people who had done nothing wrong. Third, it signified the cutting-off of roots which the terrorist forces regarded as major pillars. It also made clear that Saudi Arabia will not blink so long as terrorists want to spread their perverse behaviour, and it expressed unambiguously Saudi Arabia's role in eradicating international terrorism.

Al-Watan - Saudi

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Continuous victory is being achieved in the war against terrorism. The killing of senior members of these renegade groups means that the danger they have posed will be completely eradicated soon.

Al-Jazirah - Saudi

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The logic of slaughtering people is neither Arab nor Islamic... The war on terror is not a US or Western issue but a commitment to civilisation. The image of the slaughter of the US hostage cannot be separated from the efforts to destroy Al-Qaeda's network in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the killing of Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin... The spread of terrorism is linked to the conduct of some people - Arabs or Muslims - which stems from lost dreams and continual defeat. However, neither of these justifies terrorism.

Al-Hayat - London-based, Saudi-owned

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It is easy to abduct and kill then hide in a city like Riyadh, with millions of inhabitants. Riyadh has five million people. It has been easy for Al-Qaeda cells to do this.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat - London-based, Saudi-owned

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Johnson's murder has inevitably fuelled international media speculation about the Kingdom's ability to contain the terrorist threat... Mustafa Alani, a Mideast security analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said more kidnappings were likely: this sort of operation is easy to execute. It's also cheap and very effective... Look at all this television coverage they've gotten in the US. They've now discovered this cheap and easy way to get publicity. This is a disturbing vision but one that highlights the symbiotic relationship between terrorism and the media and how each feeds off the other to the detriment of all concerned.

Saudi Gazette - Saudi

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Last Friday, on a day known to all Muslims for its spiritual nature... a group of deranged individuals slaughtered a father and a husband in Riyadh... The sermons and behaviour that have been a constant feature in our society were bound to lead to this... How can you expect to convince a 30-year-old fanatic that what he is doing is wrong, unethical and pure madness when for the past 20 years... he has been the subject of a long, highly intensive extremism course?... Our honour has been slaughtered along with the innocent lives that were taken and the innocent minds that were brainwashed to the point of no return.

Abdurrahman Al-Shayyal, writing in Arab News - Saudi

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Fighting terrorism in Saudi Arabia is essential, but there is a concern that we are neglecting other local issues. Throughout the Kingdom's entire history not more than 110 expatriates have been killed here in terrorist attacks. In the last 28 years, 67,000 people have died in accidents on Saudi roads... Fifteen-thousand security forces were used in the search for Johnson. How many lives might be saved if that number of additional police officers were committed to fight against terror on our roads?

Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, writing in Arab News - Saudi

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.