Official: Saudi Journalist's Killing Was 'Like Pulp Fiction'

A growing amount of evidence points toward Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi having been brutally murdered and dismembered inside Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate, officials say. A senior official tells the New York Times that a team of 15 Saudi agents arrived on charter planes the day Khashoggi vanished, including an autopsy expert suspected of having dismembered the Saudi journalist with a bone saw inside the consulate, which he had visited to obtain marriage paperwork. "It is like Pulp Fiction," the official says. The AP reports that Turkish media have released images of the alleged "assassination squad." One pro-Turkish government newspaper, however, suggests that Khashoggi may have been smuggled out of the country alive.

State-run Turkish broadcaster TRT also aired video of a black van leaving the consulate around two hours after Khashoggi arrived and traveling to the consul general's home 1.2 miles away. Investigators believe that the 15 agents spent several hours at the home before traveling to the airport in a convoy of six cars, one of which allegedly carried Khashoggi's remains, the Guardian reports. They left Turkey the same day they arrived, and investigators believed they may have taken CCTV footage from the embassy with them. Saudi officials, who insist that Khashoggi left their consulate without incident, have said they will allow Turkish police to search the building. (More Jamal Khashoggi stories.)