Posted on 10/09/2004 9:35:48 AM PDT by saquin
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Hostage Kenneth Bigley escaped briefly from his captors shortly before they beheaded him in Iraq, insurgent sources have said.
They said Bigley managed to get away for about half an hour with the help of one of his captors before he was caught in farmland near the town of Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad.
Bigley was beheaded in the same area soon after his desperate bid for freedom ended on Thursday afternoon, one source said on Saturday, adding: "He never made it to the main road."
The fate of his accomplice was not immediately known. Bigley had been held by the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Jordanian Islamist militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
British and Iraqi officials have declined comment on an earlier report from a Western security source that Bigley was killed after trying to escape with help from an insider, but they have denied that he died after a failed rescue attempt.
The insurgent sources said Bigley's killing might also have been precipitated by a major U.S.-Iraqi security sweep in the last few days against guerrillas and criminals roaming a triangle of towns, including Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad.
British embassy officials refused to comment.
Blair's government, which for three weeks refused to bargain with Bigley's kidnappers even after they killed his two American colleagues, revealed on Friday that it had opened secret contacts with them in the days before his death.
On Friday a Reuters journalist saw a video in Baghdad in which the 62-year-old construction engineer made a final despairing plea for his life before militants said by Washington to have links to al Qaeda, severed his head with a knife.
Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed revulsion at Bigley's murder, but urged Britons to stay the course in Iraq.
"I feel 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 Kenneth Bigley, who after all, only wanted to make Iraq and the world a better place," Blair said.
The video scene resembled tapes of the deaths of Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, seized with Bigley from their Baghdad home on September 16, and of other Zarqawi killings.
"BARBARIC ACT"
Abu Dhabi television said it had the tape but would not broadcast it or be a "mouthpiece" for kidnappers.
Reuters Iraqi cameraman Maher Nazih, who saw the video but has only a limited command of English, said Bigley, unshaven and clad in an orange, prison-style jumpsuit, had spoken before he died. He said something along the lines of: "I need help. I need my government's help. I am a simple man. I want to live."
Iraq's Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told Reuters he believed Zarqawi had intended to kill all his hostages from the start and was never serious in its demand that the United States free female prisoners in Iraq. Washington says it holds only two women, both weapons scientists under Saddam Hussein.
"This is a horrible, barbaric act," said Allawi, who is relying on U.S. and British military support to stabilise the country sufficiently to hold elections in January.
Blair has faced fierce criticism at home since joining last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and came under more pressure this week when U.S. inspectors concluded that Saddam had none of the banned weapons which Blair cited as his main reason for war.
At least 30 foreign hostages are known to have been killed in Iraq. Two Westerners are still being held -- French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. They were seized in August by a different group, the Islamic Army in Iraq.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was to meet defence chiefs from some 18 mostly former Soviet states aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf on Saturday.
"We've been requesting the U.N. to send in some troops, and we've been out helping the U.N. find countries that are willing to send in troops to support the elections," Rumsfeld said.
Iraq's interim government pursued talks aimed at restoring its authority in Falluja, where Zarqawi's group is said to have hideouts.
Talks were also under way on a peace deal in Baghdad's Sadr City area, scene of nightly clashes between U.S. forces and a Shi'ite militia which has made a conditional offer to disarm.
Defence Minister Hazim al-Shaalaan told London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that an outline deal had been agreed that would include a three-day halt to U.S. air strikes on Falluja, the entry of Iraqi forces into the city and disarming its people of heavy weapons. He did not say when this would begin.
But many fearful residents in northern Falluja have been fleeing their homes since Friday. They said they had heard U.S. warnings delivered in Arabic over loudspeakers to leave for their own safety. "There are many terrorists living among you and we want to finish them off," the messages said.
Latifiya...parking lot coming soon !
Prayers for the soul of this individual.
Latifiya
Well now we know were the assclowns are located
God bless him, he was a fighter to the end! I hope he was able to put some mark or signal in place during his brief escape, which might be noticed by airborne reconaissance. Something to help locate the terrorists den.
Yes, I'm glad that he was able to have the pride and strength to try to escape. It's good to know that he wasn't totally unmanned in his captivity; this gives dignity to his terrible death. I pray for his soul, and for the peace and comfort of his sorrowing family. May God's vengeance, more dreadful than any we humans could contrive, rain down upon the monsters who did this, and banish them to suffer in hell forever.
They are so gone from that area (I know you would be).
There is another post on FreeRepublic about the Brits rolling out the SAS for a mop up action.
I wish Reuters would stop calling it an "execution." An execution is an act by a public authority after the trial and conviction of a criminal. Bigley's killing was murder by a crazed gang of fanatical thugs (aka terrorists).
They said Bigley managed to get away for about half an hour with the help of one of his captors before he was caught in farmland near the town of Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad.
Bigley was beheaded in the same area soon after his desperate bid for freedom ended on Thursday afternoon, one source said on Saturday, adding: "He never made it to the main road."
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