Fears were growing on Monday night for the safety of Ken Bigley, the Briton taken hostage in Iraq, after an Islamist website posted a video showing the beheading of one of the two Americans being held with him.
An Islamist group under the leadership of the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the killing of Eugene Armstrong, and said that either Bigley or the other American captive, Jack Hensley, would be killed in 24 hours unless its demands for the release of Iraqi women prisoners were met.
”The fate of the first infidel was cutting off the head before your eyes and ears. You have a 24-hour opportunity. Abide by our demand in full and release all the Muslim women, otherwise the head of the other will follow this one,” the speaker said.
Bigley’s son, Craig (33) made an emotional plea to Tony Blair on BBC News 24 last night: ”I ask Tony Blair personally to consider the amount of bloodshed already suffered.
”Please meet the demands and release my father — two women for two men.”
He added: ”Only you can save him now. You have children and you will understand how I feel at this time.”
The prime minister said before the website posting that the threats of terrorists would be resisted. ”Our response has got to stand firm … there is a clear right and wrong on these issues and that is to be with the democrats against the terrorists.”
The British Foreign Office condemned the killing and said the ”appalling crime” would not weaken its resolve in Iraq.
”The British government utterly condemns the kidnapping and murder of all innocent civilians. This appalling crime strengthens our resolve to work with the Iraqi government and people to bring security, civility and democracy to Iraq.”
Officials in Washington said a body, believed to be that of Armstrong, had been recovered.
The three men, employees of a construction company based in the United Arab Emirates, were kidnapped last Thursday from their home in a wealthy residential neighbourhood of Baghdad. Ten gunmen in a minivan drew up to the contractors’ compound, and grabbed the men without firing a shot.
Armstrong, originally from Michigan, was living with his wife in Thailand before his work took him to Iraq.
His horrifying last moments were recorded in a nine-minute videotape, which pictured Armstrong seated on the floor, blindfolded and with his hands bound behind him. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit, the type worn in American prisons from Guantánamo to Abu Ghraib, and was sobbing.
Five militants dressed in black stood behind him, four armed with assault rifles, with a black banner from the militant organisation Tawhid and Jihad (One God and Holy War) on the wall.
A militant read out a statement, and then pulled out a knife and cut the hostage’s throat until his head was severed. The militant held up the head, and placed it on top of the body. He then set the new 24 hour deadline.
US officials claim that no women are being held at the two jails named by the militants, Umm Qasr and Abu Ghraib. But it does hold two female ”high-value detainees” — Dr Rihab Taha, and Dr Huda Ammash, who were both involved in Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons programme elsewhere.
The beheading video and statements were posted on a website by Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi, a pseudonym for a contributor who has in the past passed on messages for the Tawhid and Jihad group.
Bigley’s family had earlier in the day expressed more optimism after a deadline set by the extremists passed with no news. Relatives of the men had appealed for mercy and said they were in the region to help rebuild the country.
Speaking before last night’s developments, Bigley’s brother, Stan (67) from Wigan, said: ”We have been hovering by the phone constantly with our eyes glued to the TV waiting for any word. We keep telling ourselves that no news is good news.”
Bigley, a retired lorry driver, said: ”It has been a very punishing mental ordeal for the whole family, partly because we feel so powerless.”
The Tawhid and Jihad group is believed to have been behind the kidnapping and beheading of the US freelance contractor Nick Berg, a South Korean and a Bulgarian. – Guardian Unlimited Â