Saudi security forces kill 2 militants in raid

Security forces also seized weapons, including an antiaircraft SAM-7 missile; explosives, chemicals, video cameras, and cash from the Al Qaeda house.

"Saudi authorities are pursuing every lead in their terror investigations," Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, said in a statement. "They are absolutely determined to bring these murderers to justice and end the threat to the peaceful citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia."

Johnson, 49, an engineer with Apache helicopter maker Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped and beheaded by militants in Saudi Arabia last month. Only his head was found, the Interior Ministry said, and a search continued for the rest of his body.

Video from Saudi TV of the site of the raid in the King Fahd neighborhood of Riyadh showed the hulks of several burned-out cars, a gutted pickup truck, and another car with a shattered windshield and bullet holes. The footage also showed bloodstained and bullet-pocked walls, a bloodied blanket, and a white robe, torn and pink with blood.

US Embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin said Saudi authorities had informed the embassy of the head's discovery, and consular officials in Washington were in the process of notifying Johnson's family.

Johnson's son, Paul M. Johnson III, reached by telephone, said he has received no official confirmation of the identification. He had flown to Washington for a news conference with Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, to press the Saudi Embassy for information about the search for the body.

An official at the Interior Ministry said authorities were holding the wife and three children of Aoofi after the raid.

The statement from the Saudi Embassy in Washington said security forces were investigating a residence in the capital's King Fahd district when they were attacked with various weapons, including hand and rocket-propelled grenades.

They returned fire, killing two suspected militants, Issa bin Saad Mohammed al-Oshen, who was on Saudi Arabia's most-wanted list, and Mujab Abu-Ras Al-Dossary, the statement said.