Author: Edward Wong
Publication: The New York Times
Date: October 9, 2004
A militant group released a video
on Friday showing insurgents slicing off the head of a man identified as
Kenneth Bigley, the British engineer who was kidnapped here last month
and later pleaded with the British government to negotiate with his captors.
Mr. Bigley is the first Briton to
be beheaded in a series of slayings of foreign hostages that began last
spring. The militant group, One God and Jihad, posted a pair of Internet
videos last month showing the decapitations of two American engineers kidnapped
with Mr. Bigley from their home in central Baghdad.
Two videos of Mr. Bigley, 62, were
later released in which the British engineer pleaded with Prime Minister
Tony Blair to release all female prisoners in Iraq, a demand made by his
captors.
Mr. Bigley's predicament ignited
a political firestorm in England, where many residents of Liverpool, his
hometown, and antiwar groups urged the government to negotiate. Mr. Blair
refused, and little was heard of Mr. Bigley until Friday, when Abu Dhabi
Television and Reuters both reported that they had received a video showing
the killing of Mr. Bigley.
Mr. Bigley is shown sitting in an
orange jumpsuit in front of six black-clad men and a wall with the black
banner of One God and Jihad, led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Mr. Bigley pleads for his life, saying, "I'm a simple man, I want to live,
I want my government's help," according to a journalist familiar with the
video.
One of the masked men then reads
a statement in Arabic accusing Mr. Blair of failing to free the female
prisoners before pulling out a large knife and cutting off Mr. Bigley's
head.
One God and Jihad also claimed responsibility
for the beheading last May of Nicholas Berg, an American businessman, and
the decapitation in June of Kim Sun Il, a South Korean translator. But
none of the previous hostage incidents played out with as much national
anguish and over as protracted a period of time as that of Mr. Bigley.
The militants cannily hit emotional
chords in Great Britain, which has about 8,000 troops here, by first releasing
a video of Mr. Bigley beseeching Mr. Blair, then one of him sitting inside
a cage of chicken wire, looking weary and gaunt.
Philip Bigley, one of the victim's
brothers, read a statement on national television in England defending
Mr. Blair.
"We can confirm that the family
has now received absolute proof that Ken Bigley was executed by his captors,"
he said. "The family here in Liverpool believe that our government did
everything it possibly could to secure the release of Ken in this impossible
situation."
Another brother, Paul, sent a statement
to Stop the War Coalition, a British antiwar group that said Mr. Blair
has "blood on his hands."
"Please, please stop the war and
prevent other lives being lost," he said. "It is illegal. It has to stop."
Mr. Blair released a statement saying,
"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."
The captors have shown a cold cinematic
flair. At the end of the 11-minute video last month in which Mr. Bigley
pleaded with Mr. Blair, they showed a series of title cards in Arabic and
English on a black screen in which they asked whether a British civilian
was worth anything to Blair. The last screen read, "Do leaders really care
about their people?"
Jack Straw, the Britain's foreign
minister, said on television that someone had approached the British Embassy
in Baghdad earlier in the week and offered to be an intermediary with the
militants.
The British government exchanged
messages with the captors through this person, and the captors continued
to demand that all women prisoners in Iraq be released.
Military commanders have said that
only two women are being held in American prisons in Iraq, both scientists
who once worked on Saddam Hussein's weapons programs, and that neither
would be freed to meet the demands of One God and Jihad.
More than 150 foreigners have been
kidnapped in Iraq since last April, most by bandits who then sell the captives
to jihadist groups or to the victims' employers or countries. An industry
has sprung up, spurring expatriates to barricade themselves in fortified
homes and hotels, if not to leave the country altogether. The widespread
fear has crippled reconstruction projects and hobbled foreign investment
here.
The American military said a soldier
with Task Force Danger was killed and another wounded when their patrol
was attacked Friday morning around the town of Tuz. Another soldier died
of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb explosion in southwestern Baghdad
on Oct. 1. At least 1,063 American soldiers have died since the start of
the war.
In the city of Ramadi, 60 miles
west of Baghdad, insurgents blew up a building used by the Red Crescent,
the American military said. Marines reported seeing four people videotaping
the destruction of the building, and insurgents apparently rushed into
a mosque for cover as marines arrived on the scene. The building was the
third destroyed by insurgents since Sept. 29, the military said, with insurgents
trying to blame American troops for the demolitions afterward.
Marines venturing through the streets
of Ramadi, the seat of restive Anbar province, come under constant attack.
American officials have said the city could be among the next to be seized
in an offensive to drive insurgents from areas they use as bases of support.
American commanders say the goal is to pacify as much of the country as
possible to ensure a large voter turnout for scheduled elections in January,
but many experts are voicing growing doubts about whether legitimate polls
can be held given the rampant violence here.
The military said American soldiers
in Baghdad stopped a truck carrying 1,500 155- millimeter artillery shells,
the largest weapons seizure made by Task Force Baghdad.
Heather Timmons contributed reporting
from London for this article.
