KoriEllis
09-21-2004, 06:41 PM
2nd U.S. Hostage Killed in Iraq
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A posting on an Islamic Web site claimed Tuesday that the al-Qaida-linked group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has slain a U.S. hostage in Iraq, just 24 hours after grisly video showed the terror mastermind beheading another American captive. The claim could not immediately be verified.
The group, Tawhid and Jihad, kidnapped two Americans - Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong - and Briton Kenneth Bigley on Thursday from a home that the three civil engineers shared in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood. Al-Zarqawi beheaded Armstrong, and the militants on Monday posted a gruesome video of the 52-year-old man's death.
The new posting followed the passing of the militants' 24-hour deadline for the release of all Iraqi women from U.S. custody, and after anguished relatives in the United States and Britain begged for the lives of Bigley, 62, and Hensley, who would have marked his 49th birthday Wednesday.
``The nation's zealous sons slaughtered the second American hostage after the end of the deadline,'' the statement said. It was signed with the pseudonym Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, the name usually used on statements from al-Zarqawi's group.
The brief statement did not give the name of the hostage killed. It promised video proof soon.
Tawhid and Jihad - Arabic for ``Monotheism and Holy War'' - has claimed responsibility for killing at least seven hostages, including another American, Nicholas Berg, who was abducted in April. The group has also said it is behind a number of bombings and gun attacks.
This week's back-to-back killings and the threat of more, however, represented a heightened level of psychological warfare in al-Zarqawi's campaign of terror.
A host of militant groups have used kidnappings and bombings as their signature weapons in a blood-soaked campaign to undermine interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government and force the United States and its allies out of Iraq.
A car bomb wounded four U.S. soldiers Tuesday on the road to Baghdad's airport, underscoring the inability of American forces to control key areas of the capital. West of the capital, two U.S. Marines were killed in separate attacks, the military said Tuesday.
The new posting came hours after President Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq, telling a subdued U.N. General Assembly session that the war launched in 2003 without U.N. approval delivered the Iraqi people from ``an outlawed dictator.''
Bush told Allawi, ``We will not allow these thugs and terrorists to decide your fate and to decide our fate. ``
Allawi said: ``The barbaric action of yesterday is really unbelievable.''
Al-Zarqawi, standing alongside four other masked militants clad in black, personally cut off Armstrong's head, the CIA confirmed after analyzing his voice on the footage.
Earlier Tuesday, Hensley's family in Georgia appealed to his captors to open lines of communication with them and spare his life.
``He was just there doing a service for the Iraqi people - including even his captors,'' Hensley's wife, Pati, told CNN. ``I would plead with them to please realize this man does not deserve this fate.''
Bigley's family echoed her pleas.
``We are begging you not to kill them,'' said Bigley's brother, Philip. ``We are begging you to find a solution, a compromise, that will help to save two lives, innocent lives.''
Armstrong's body was discovered Monday only blocks from where he lived, officials and witnesses said.
In a video posted Saturday, Tawhid and Jihad had threatened to kill the three men unless Iraqi women were released from two U.S.-controlled prisons, Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr.
Abu Ghraib is the prison where American soldiers were photographed sexually humiliating male prisoners, raising fears about the safety of women detainees.
In Monday's video, al-Zarqawi announced that Tawhid and Jihad was taking revenge for female Iraqi prisoners and called Bush ``a dog.''
The U.S. military says women are not held at either facility but has acknowledged it is holding two female ``security prisoners'' elsewhere. They are Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, a scientist who became known as ``Dr. Germ'' for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher known as ``Mrs. Anthrax.''
In London, Bigley's son urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet the captors' demands.
``I ask Tony Blair personally to consider the amount of bloodshed already suffered,'' Craig Bigley said in a videotaped statement. ``Please meet the demands and release my father - two women for two men. ... Only you can save him now.''
Blair called the family Tuesday afternoon, but a British Foreign Office spokesman said the government would not give in to the kidnappers.
Foreign Office official Dean McLoughlin later went on Arab television station Al-Arabiya to say ``not even one'' female prisoner was under Britain's control.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the taking and killing of hostages in Iraq. But he also said Iraqi prisoners had been disgracefully abused, an implicit criticism of the U.S. treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib.
``No one is above the law,'' Annan said. ``Again and again, we see fundamental laws shamelessly disregarded - those that ordain respect for innocent life, for civilians, for the vulnerable - especially children.''
Through their sorrow, Armstrong's family extended prayers to relatives of other hostages. Rick Gamber, Armstrong's cousin, told NBC's ``Today Show'' that the family doesn't want revenge.
``Our family feels a great deal of grief,'' he said. ``We hope the criminals are brought to justice, but we certainly don't want people to overreact and do something foolish.''
Also Tuesday, the Turkish VINSAN construction company announced it was bowing to the demands of militants and halting operations in Iraq in a bid to save the lives of 10 kidnapped Turkish employees.
Another Turkish hostage, seized Aug. 5, was released after his company, Atahan Lojistik International, withdrew from Iraq, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Tahsin Top's abductors had also demanded a $45,000 ransom. It was not clear if money was paid.
But Turkish state TRT television reported the body of another Turk, identified as Akar Besir, was found early Tuesday near the northern city of Mosul. The station said Besir was a driver for a firm working for the U.S. military and was kidnapped Saturday.
More than 130 foreigners have been kidnapped here, and at least 27 of them have been killed. Many more Iraqis have also been seized in the chaos since Saddam Hussein was ousted last year, in many cases for ransom.
Associated Press reporter Sam F. Ghattas contributed to this story from Cairo, Egypt.
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A posting on an Islamic Web site claimed Tuesday that the al-Qaida-linked group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has slain a U.S. hostage in Iraq, just 24 hours after grisly video showed the terror mastermind beheading another American captive. The claim could not immediately be verified.
The group, Tawhid and Jihad, kidnapped two Americans - Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong - and Briton Kenneth Bigley on Thursday from a home that the three civil engineers shared in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood. Al-Zarqawi beheaded Armstrong, and the militants on Monday posted a gruesome video of the 52-year-old man's death.
The new posting followed the passing of the militants' 24-hour deadline for the release of all Iraqi women from U.S. custody, and after anguished relatives in the United States and Britain begged for the lives of Bigley, 62, and Hensley, who would have marked his 49th birthday Wednesday.
``The nation's zealous sons slaughtered the second American hostage after the end of the deadline,'' the statement said. It was signed with the pseudonym Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, the name usually used on statements from al-Zarqawi's group.
The brief statement did not give the name of the hostage killed. It promised video proof soon.
Tawhid and Jihad - Arabic for ``Monotheism and Holy War'' - has claimed responsibility for killing at least seven hostages, including another American, Nicholas Berg, who was abducted in April. The group has also said it is behind a number of bombings and gun attacks.
This week's back-to-back killings and the threat of more, however, represented a heightened level of psychological warfare in al-Zarqawi's campaign of terror.
A host of militant groups have used kidnappings and bombings as their signature weapons in a blood-soaked campaign to undermine interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government and force the United States and its allies out of Iraq.
A car bomb wounded four U.S. soldiers Tuesday on the road to Baghdad's airport, underscoring the inability of American forces to control key areas of the capital. West of the capital, two U.S. Marines were killed in separate attacks, the military said Tuesday.
The new posting came hours after President Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq, telling a subdued U.N. General Assembly session that the war launched in 2003 without U.N. approval delivered the Iraqi people from ``an outlawed dictator.''
Bush told Allawi, ``We will not allow these thugs and terrorists to decide your fate and to decide our fate. ``
Allawi said: ``The barbaric action of yesterday is really unbelievable.''
Al-Zarqawi, standing alongside four other masked militants clad in black, personally cut off Armstrong's head, the CIA confirmed after analyzing his voice on the footage.
Earlier Tuesday, Hensley's family in Georgia appealed to his captors to open lines of communication with them and spare his life.
``He was just there doing a service for the Iraqi people - including even his captors,'' Hensley's wife, Pati, told CNN. ``I would plead with them to please realize this man does not deserve this fate.''
Bigley's family echoed her pleas.
``We are begging you not to kill them,'' said Bigley's brother, Philip. ``We are begging you to find a solution, a compromise, that will help to save two lives, innocent lives.''
Armstrong's body was discovered Monday only blocks from where he lived, officials and witnesses said.
In a video posted Saturday, Tawhid and Jihad had threatened to kill the three men unless Iraqi women were released from two U.S.-controlled prisons, Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr.
Abu Ghraib is the prison where American soldiers were photographed sexually humiliating male prisoners, raising fears about the safety of women detainees.
In Monday's video, al-Zarqawi announced that Tawhid and Jihad was taking revenge for female Iraqi prisoners and called Bush ``a dog.''
The U.S. military says women are not held at either facility but has acknowledged it is holding two female ``security prisoners'' elsewhere. They are Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, a scientist who became known as ``Dr. Germ'' for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher known as ``Mrs. Anthrax.''
In London, Bigley's son urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet the captors' demands.
``I ask Tony Blair personally to consider the amount of bloodshed already suffered,'' Craig Bigley said in a videotaped statement. ``Please meet the demands and release my father - two women for two men. ... Only you can save him now.''
Blair called the family Tuesday afternoon, but a British Foreign Office spokesman said the government would not give in to the kidnappers.
Foreign Office official Dean McLoughlin later went on Arab television station Al-Arabiya to say ``not even one'' female prisoner was under Britain's control.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the taking and killing of hostages in Iraq. But he also said Iraqi prisoners had been disgracefully abused, an implicit criticism of the U.S. treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib.
``No one is above the law,'' Annan said. ``Again and again, we see fundamental laws shamelessly disregarded - those that ordain respect for innocent life, for civilians, for the vulnerable - especially children.''
Through their sorrow, Armstrong's family extended prayers to relatives of other hostages. Rick Gamber, Armstrong's cousin, told NBC's ``Today Show'' that the family doesn't want revenge.
``Our family feels a great deal of grief,'' he said. ``We hope the criminals are brought to justice, but we certainly don't want people to overreact and do something foolish.''
Also Tuesday, the Turkish VINSAN construction company announced it was bowing to the demands of militants and halting operations in Iraq in a bid to save the lives of 10 kidnapped Turkish employees.
Another Turkish hostage, seized Aug. 5, was released after his company, Atahan Lojistik International, withdrew from Iraq, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Tahsin Top's abductors had also demanded a $45,000 ransom. It was not clear if money was paid.
But Turkish state TRT television reported the body of another Turk, identified as Akar Besir, was found early Tuesday near the northern city of Mosul. The station said Besir was a driver for a firm working for the U.S. military and was kidnapped Saturday.
More than 130 foreigners have been kidnapped here, and at least 27 of them have been killed. Many more Iraqis have also been seized in the chaos since Saddam Hussein was ousted last year, in many cases for ransom.
Associated Press reporter Sam F. Ghattas contributed to this story from Cairo, Egypt.