On Edge Over Hostages' Fate
An Islamic militant group claimed in a Web posting Thursday that two Italian women taken hostage in Iraq have been killed.
That came just hours after a blindfolded British hostage appeared on a terrorist-released video, appealing to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to save his life by meeting terrorist demands to free all female Iraqi prisoners.
His wife and son also pleaded, but the British government said it would not negotiate, reports CBS News Correspondent Barry Petersen.
The Italian government on Thursday urged "maximum caution" in assessing the claims that the women have been killed. The Italian government also suggested the communiques could be part of a terrorism campaign through the media.
The new posting about the purported beheadings of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta appeared on a little-known Web site and was signed by a group calling itself the Supporters of al-Zawahri. That group's name refers to Ayman al-Zawahri, a deputy of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
That same group was the first to claim responsibility for the Sept. 7 capture of the two women, but the statement was somewhat suspicious because it gave reasons for their killing that were not among its initial demands.
In other developments:
A second militant group, the Islamic Jihad Organization in Iraq, also claimed to be holding the two women. On Wednesday, a purported statement from the Jihad Organization had said the two aid workers had been killed. But Italian state television reported Thursday that Foreign Ministry officials had described the Web site where it appeared as "not very reliable."
The latest statement promised that video of the slayings will be released.
"The heads of the two criminal agents of Italian intelligence, Simona Pari and Simona Toretta have been chopped off by knife without pity or mercy," said the claim. "The video of cutting off the heads of the two Italian hostages will be issued soon."
Pari and Torretta, both 29, were seized from their Baghdad offices by armed militants on Sept. 7. They worked for "Un Ponte Per ..." ("A Bridge to ...") and were involved in school and water projects in Iraq.
The Italian Foreign Ministry said it did not have any immediate comment on the latest claim.
Briton Kenneth Bigley, 62, and two American hostages working for a construction company were kidnapped in Baghdad last week. Tawhid and Jihad, the militant group of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said it kidnapped the three and threatened to kill them within 48 hours unless all Iraqi women prisoners held in Iraq were released.
The two Americans, Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, were later killed, and their decapitated bodies have been found.
In the video seen Thursday, Bigley started with the phrase: "To Mr. Blair, my name is Ken Bigley, from Liverpool."
"I think this is possibly my last chance," he said. "Please help me see my wife, and my son and my mother. I don't want to die. I don't deserve it."
"Mr. Blair, I am nothing to you," said Bigley. "Please, you can help. I know you can," he said.
British officials have made it clear they will not negotiate with the kidnappers.
In London, Bigley's brother, Paul, is blaming the U.S. for sabotaging a prisoner release he had hoped would save his brother's life.
There were reports Wednesday that Iraqi authorities intended to release Rihab Rashid Taha, a female scientist who became known as "Dr. Germ" for allegedly helping Iraq make weapons with anthrax.
But before the day was over, a U.S. embassy spokesman ruled out any immediate release of Taha.
She is being held along with another notorious female prisoner: Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher known as "Mrs. Anthrax."