U.S. Tried To Save Hostages

Coalition personnel mounted two operations last month to rescue members of a group of three hostages held by Iraq, but they didn't find them, a U.S. government official said Tuesday.

British civil engineer Kenneth Bigley and U.S. engineers Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley were the targets of the rescue. They were kidnapped from their homes in Baghdad on Sept. 16.

The first operation came before Sept. 20, when Armstrong is believed to have been beheaded by his captors, the U.S. official said, discussing sensitive operations only on the condition of anonymity. The second came after Armstrong's death but before that of Hensley, which was reported Sept. 21.

CNN reported U.S. forces found no signs of the three during either operation.

Bigley's killing was confirmed Sunday. Another U.S. official said there was credible information Bigley tried to escape with the help of one of his captors but was recaptured and quickly beheaded.

There was no word on the fate of his captor.

Tawhid and Jihad, lead by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the abductions and killings.

More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, some for ransom and others as leverage against the United States and its allies. Bigley was at least the 28th to be killed.

Kidnappers beheaded Bigley, 62, after twice releasing videos in which he wept and pleaded with Prime Minister Tony Blair for his life.

A videotape sent to Abu Dhabi TV showed Bigley kneeling in front of six masked gunmen, according to a witness who saw the footage. One militant, speaking in Arabic, declared the Briton would be slain because his government refused to release women prisoners detained in Iraq.

The speaker then pulled a knife from his belt and severed Bigley's head as three others pinned him down, said the witness, who spoke on condition he not be identified. The tape ended with the killer holding up the severed head.

Abu Dhabi TV did not broadcast the videotape of Bigley, saying it refused "to serve as a mouthpiece for such groups or their actions."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Friday that messages were exchanged with Bigley's kidnappers through an intermediary in Iraq. But he said the militants refused to drop their demands, "even though they were fully aware there are no women prisoners in our custody in Iraq."

When asked by reporters to comment on rumors of a rescue attempt, Straw said: "I'm afraid I can't, no."

A Western official in Baghdad dismissed the rumors of a rescue, saying they had never established where Bigley was being held and therefore no rescue was planned.

Hostage rescue operations are risky enterprises with a slim record of success. In 1975, the United States lost 41 men in its efforts to free the USS Mayaguez and its crew, which had been captured by the Khmer Rouge.

The next year, an Israeli soldier and three hostages died when Israeli commandos stormed a hijacked aircraft that had landed in Entebbe, Uganda, freeing 100 captives.

In 1980, eight U.S. soldiers died in a failed attempt to free hostages in Iran. That same year, when British special forces stormed the Iranian embassy in London to free hostages, one captive was killed and two were injured in the operation.