An Irish national has been killed in his office in the eastern sector of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Al-Arabiya satellite news channel reported on Tuesday.
The Dubai-based, Saudi-owned channel did not identify the victim or give other details of the incident, the first attack on a Westerner since the June 18 killing of the local leader of the al Qaeda terror network.
Saudi security forces shot dead Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, head of "al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula," and three associates in Riyadh shortly after they publicised pictures of the beheading of American engineer Paul Johnson, who had been abducted in the capital.
The beheading climaxed a spate of attacks on Western expatriates in Saudi Arabia by suspected al Qaeda extremists that began in early May, a year after the militants launched a wave of bombings in Riyadh.
On June 23, King Fahd offered a pardon to suspected militants who turn themselves in within a month, but only six came forward.
Just one of those figured on a 26-strong most-wanted list issued by the kingdom in December. Twelve militants on the list remain at large, while the others have either been killed in clashes with security forces or surrendered.