World

British Hostage Executed

October 8, 2004 / 3:23 PM EDT / CBS/AP

The brother of a British hostage in Iraq said Friday his family has seen "absolute proof" that Kenneth Bigley is dead, after a television station said it had received a videotape of his beheading.

Abu Dhabi TV had said it has a videotape showing the killing of Bigley, but decided not to air it. In Britain, Sky News TV quoted an unidentified British government source as saying Bigley was dead.

A Foreign Office spokesman said, "We are trying urgently to corroborate reports that Mr. Bigley has been killed, but have not yet done so. We are in close touch with Mr. Bigley's family at this difficult time."

A witness who saw the tape, but asked not to be identified by name, said the tape shows six hooded, armed men standing behind the kneeling Bigley, whom the witness recognized from two previous tapes released by the kidnappers.

One of the six then spoke in Arabic for about a minute, saying they planned to carry out "the sentence of execution against this hostage" because the British government "did not meet our demand" to release Iraqi women detained by the U.S.-led command in Iraq.

Afterward, the speaker took a knife from his belt and severed Bigley's head as three others held him down, the witness said. The tape ends with the killer holding up the severed head.

In other developments:

A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded Friday when their patrol was attacked with a homemade bomb, the U.S. command said in a statement. At least 1,061 U.S. troops have died in Iraq.

American warplanes struck a building in rebel-held Fallujah where the U.S. command said leaders of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network were meeting early Friday. A doctor said the attack killed 13 people, including a groom on his wedding night, and wounded 17 others.

Late Thursday, rockets struck a Baghdad hotel crowded with foreign contractors and journalists, seen as a symbol of continued U.S. and Western dominance since the formal handover of power to an interim Iraqi government June 28.

An aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr offered on Thursday to disarm his Mahdi Army militia in a move that could bring an end to weeks of fighting in Baghdad's Shiite district Sadr City. The government cautiously welcomed the offer.

Acting on a tip, Task Force Baghdad soldiers stopped a truck carrying more than 1,500 155-mm artillery rounds Thursday one of the largest seizures to date, U.S. command said.

Beginning in 1999, Saddam Hussein used money skimmed from the oil-for-food program to buy arms from six governments and private companies, The New York Times reports, citing the findings of the Iraq Survey Group published this week. The purchases did not significantly improve his conventional forces, and he lacked WMD stockpiles or programs.

Bigley, 62, was abducted Sept. 16 with two Americans from their residence in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood by the militant Tawhid and Jihad group, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The Americans, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, were decapitated. Graphic videos of their slayings were posted on the Internet, along with videotapes of Bigley pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to save him.

Blair's government repeatedly has said it was willing to talk to the kidnappers about the hostage's release, but it would never pay a ransom or meet any political demands.

On Friday Blair condemned Bigley's killers as "barbaric" and said they must not be allowed to prevail over people trying to rebuild Iraq.

"I feel desperately sorry for Kenneth Bigley and his family who have behaved with extraordinary dignity and courage," Blair said in a brief statement he read on national television.

"I feel utter revulsion at the people who did this. Not just at the barbaric nature of the killing, but the way, frankly, they played with the situation over the past few weeks, and I feel a strong a strong sense, as I hope others do, that the actions of these people, whether in Iraq or elsewhere, should not prevail over people like Ken Bigley, who after all only wanted to make Iraq and the world a better place," Blair said.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the British government had exchanged messages with Bigley's captors in an effort to win his release.

He said the government had stuck to its policy of agreeing to talk with the kidnappers, but never paying a ransom or conceding to political demands they made.

Kidnappers have abducted more than 150 people in Iraq this year. Most hostages have been freed, but at least 27 have been killed.

Some kidnapping groups seek political objectives such as the withdrawal of foreign forces or companies from Iraq in a bid to undermine the U.S.-backed interim government, while others demand ransom money.

In Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, Dr. Ahmed Saeed said his hospital received 13 dead, including the groom, and 17 wounded, including the bride. He said most of the injured were female relatives of the groom who were staying at the house after the wedding celebration.

Mohammed Jawad, who lives next door, said he had just moved into the central neighborhood to escape repeated shelling on Fallujah's outskirts. His brother and six nephews were killed in the strike, which damaged their house.

"This attack shows that there is no safe place in Fallujah, and the Americans are not differentiating between civilians and armed men," Jawad said in tears, as he was treated for shrapnel wounds to his face and hand.

The U.S. command, however, said "credible intelligence sources" reported terrorist leaders were meeting at the targeted house.

The attack was among a dozen "precision strikes" launched since last month against al-Zarqawi's dreaded Tawhid and Jihad network, which has claimed responsibility for kidnapping and beheading several foreign hostages. The group is also believed behind mortar attacks, suicide bombings and shooting sprees that have killed scores in recent months.