A second United States hostage has been murdered this week by Al-Zarqawi’s jihadist thugs. How followers of Islam can think this is going to frighten or cow Americans defies imagination. I know what effect it has on me: anger, disgust and bitterness.
God bless the families of these victims.
From MSNBC, the Associated Press and Reuters:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A posting on an Islamic Web site claimed Tuesday that an al-Qaida-linked group has slain a second American hostage in Iraq and threatened to kill a third hostage.
The claim that Jack Hensley, a civilian contractor, had been killed could not be verified immediately.
The posting came as the militant group’s 24-hour deadline passed. It had demanded the release of all Iraqi women from U.S. custody.
The statement from the militant Tawhid and Jihad group, headed by Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it would kill British hostage Kenneth Bigley unless women prisoners in Iraq were freed.
The statement gave no deadline.
It said that it would post a video of the killing soon.
“Lions of the Tawhid and Jihad have slaughtered the second American hostage after the deadline lapsed,” the statement said.
“The British hostage will meet the same fate if the British government does not do what must be done to release him.”
The same group said Monday that it had beheaded another American hostage, Eugene Armstrong. A video showing Armstrong’s killing was later made available, and Armstrong’s body was found on a street in Baghdad.
The three hostages were abducted from their Baghdad home last week.
The United States has offered $25 million for information leading to al-Zarqawi’s capture.
Al-Zarqawi on tape
A posting on an Islamic Web site claimed Tuesday that an al-Qaida-linked group has slain a second American hostage in Iraq and threatened to kill a third hostage.
The claim that Jack Hensley, a civilian contractor, had been killed could not be verified immediately.
The posting came as the militant group’s 24-hour deadline passed. It had demanded the release of all Iraqi women from U.S. custody.
The statement from the militant Tawhid and Jihad group, headed by Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it would kill British hostage Kenneth Bigley unless women prisoners in Iraq were freed.
The statement gave no deadline.
It said that it would post a video of the killing soon.
“Lions of the Tawhid and Jihad have slaughtered the second American hostage after the deadline lapsed,” the statement said.
“The British hostage will meet the same fate if the British government does not do what must be done to release him.”
The same group said Monday that it had beheaded another American hostage, Eugene Armstrong. A video showing Armstrong’s killing was later made available, and Armstrong’s body was found on a street in Baghdad.
The three hostages were abducted from their Baghdad home last week.
The United States has offered $25 million for information leading to al-Zarqawi’s capture.
Al-Zarqawi on tape
A CIA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agency’s technical analysis determined with a “high degree of confidence” that the voice on the video showing the beheading of Armstrong is that of al-Zarqawi and that he personally killed Armstrong. A text on the video also claims that al-Zarqawi himself killed the American.
In New York, President Bush told the visiting Iraqi prime minister on Tuesday that “we will not allow these thugs to decide your fate.”
Speaking before the latest development, Bush expressed “heartfelt condolences” to Armstrong’s family and said “we all stand in solidarity with the American that is now being held captive.”
Armstrong’s body was found a few blocks from where he lived in the leafy west Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, officials and witnesses said. Iraqi police found the corpse near a highway overpass and informed U.S. troops, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
In another hostage-taking, a Turkish man was freed Tuesday after the Turkish construction company he works for said it was halting operations in Iraq. Another Turkish company said Tuesday it would do the same in a bid to try to save the lives of 10 employees kidnapped by militants.
Appeal to Blair
The family of the British hostage made a desperate appeal to Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday to meet kidnappers’ demands and save his life.
“I ask Tony Blair personally to consider the amount of bloodshed already suffered,” Bigley’s son Craig said in a statement broadcast on BBC News 24 television. “Only you can save him now.”
“Please meet the demands and release my father ? two women for two men.”
In the video of Armstrong’s murder, the hostage-takers said they had killed him because U.S. authorities had failed to free women prisoners in Iraqi jails.
The U.S. says the only women in jails are two scientists accused of working on ex-president Saddam Hussein’s banned weapons programs.
The extremists gave another 24 hours for the U.S.-led coalition to release women prisoners, or the other two hostages would be killed.
Blair condemned the kidnappings at a news conference Monday. “But our response has not got to be to weaken,” he said. “Our response has got to be to stand firm.”
The grisly beheading was the latest killing in a particularly violent month in Iraq, with more than 300 people dead in insurgent attacks and U.S. military strikes over the past seven days.
Group’s earlier claims
Tawhid and Jihad ? Arabic for “Monotheism and Holy War” - has claimed responsibility for killing at least six hostages, including Armstrong and another American, Nicholas Berg, who was abducted in April. The group has also said it is behind a number of bombings and gun attacks.
Armstrong grew up in Hillsdale, Mich., but left the area around 1990. Armstrong’s work in construction took him around the world; he lived in Thailand with his wife before going to Iraq.
Hensley, 48, made his home in Marietta, Ga., with his wife Patty and their 13-year-old daughter.
All three men worked for Gulf Services Co. of the United Arab Emirates.
In a statement released after the beheading video was posted, Armstrong’s family said: “This is what we did not want to hear. We are praying for Jack Hensley and Kenneth Bigley and their families.”
Civilian death toll
At least 55 American civilians have died in Iraq since Bush declared major combat complete on May 1, 2003.
In addition to Armstrong and Berg, at least two other Americans have been beheaded since Bush launched the war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks. Paul M. Johnson Jr., a 49-year-old engineer, was decapitated by militants in Saudi Arabia in June. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was killed in Pakistan in 2002.
U.S. Army Spc. Keith Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, is officially listed by the military as missing. Maupin disappeared in Iraq on April 9 after an attack on a fuel convoy. Arab television reported June 29 that he was killed but did not broadcast a video it said showed his shooting death. U.S. military could not confirm that a man shown being shot in videotape was Maupin.
Also missing from that convoy attack are contract truckers William Bradley and Timothy Bell, both Americans.
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