Ken Bigley: Three weeks in hell

Rubbish clogs its rutted streets, illegal electricity wires hang in clusters from the single-storey, breeze-block houses, and ragged children throw stones at the cars that bounce through its one major road.

Around the town desiccated farmland stretches to the horizon. Shrubs and palm trees lie along the edges of the scrappy fields.

It was in one such field that the body – and the head – of Ken Bigley was found.

Even Iraqis drive quickly through Latifya. The tribes who live in and around the town have long been known for banditry and violent crime.

More recently Saudi-funded hardline preachers, and the occupation of their country by American-led forces, have added a religious edge to the already unforgiving mind-set.

It was among these people that Mr Bigley, who was killed last Thursday, spent his final days.

The 62-year-old engineer was abducted, along with two American colleagues, from a house in the wealthy al-Mansour district in the west of the capital on September 16.

The Americans were swiftly killed, on video, and their bodies dumped near to the site of their abduction. As a result, those working to locate Mr Bigley – a collection of British, American and Iraqi intelligence agents – initially focused their efforts in al-Mansour itself.

But at the end of last month, at about the time that a second video of Mr Bigley was released by the kidnappers, the hunt shifted, first farther west, to the rebel-held city of Falluja, and then farther south, towards Latifya.

Although clearly profoundly distressed, Mr Bigley appeared – in the two videos released by the kidnappers – to be in relatively good physical condition.

Freed hostages, including some held by groups of a similar Islamic militant tendency as those who held Mr Bigley, have reported that they received sufficient, if not luxurious, food.

Most also report that they were blindfolded almost continually and were often chained or tied to walls or heavy furniture.

It is likely Mr Bigley was treated in like manner, although intelligence sources do not believe that he was forced to live in the cage in which he was seen in the second video.

"The cage and the orange jumpsuit he was wearing in the videos were visual symbols, used to draw attention to the sort of clothing and the supposed conditions for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay," one intelligence source said.

"He would certainly have been restrained and well wrapped up when he was moved."

In the early days of his captivity, while in Mansour or the western suburbs of Baghdad, Mr Bigley is thought to have been held in a series of townhouses.

Supplies into Falluja and the villages around the city have been restricted by the continual fighting there.

In recent weeks the Americans have increased the number of air strikes on targets in the area, by way of preparation for a major assault in conjunction with new Iraqi security forces, in the coming weeks.

It is thought that Mr Bigley was moved regularly as the group holding him tried to stay ahead of the hunt.

Many of the air strikes have been specifically targeted on the mastermind behind the abduction of Mr Bigley – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Zarqawi is a 37-year-old Jordanian-born militant who has been active since the late 1980s when he travelled to Afghanistan to take part in the war against the Soviets.

Most recently he has been orchestrating the militant Islamic insurgency in Iraq.

Intelligence documents from Western agencies reveal that Zarqawi, who has a $25 million price on his head, is a rival of Osama bin Laden – not an ally, as has been frequently claimed.

According to confidential intelligence assessments obtained by Bristish newspaper The Observer, his al-Tauhid group is considerably smaller than often thought, with as few as 50 members and almost certainly no more than 200.

Al-Tauhid has taken a series of hostages, none of whom has escaped alive. The first to be killed was Nick Berg, a young American freelance electricity contractor who was beheaded in May.

His was the first death to be posted as a video on the Internet in the now gruesomely familiar format. Since then, a Korean, two Bulgarians, two Turks and an Egyptian have been killed.

The local connections of Zarqawi, as a member of the Bani Hassan tribe, are one of the group's major assets. The Bani Hassan stretch across eastern Jordan and western Iraq, and Zarqawi's contacts have allowed him to plug into the tribal networks behind much of the violence in the "Sunni triangle", west of Baghdad.

In the 10 days before he was killed, Mr Bigley is believed to have been moved between houses belonging to local tribal and religious leaders in villages around Falluja, spending no more than 24 hours in each and moving before dawn.

He was moved steadily, if erratically, south as American military operations intensified to the north.

The team which hunted Mr Bigley used communication interception equipment but was unable to get a fix on the hostage-takers' location, making any attempt to rescue the Liverpool-born contractor impossible, though sources have indicated that the British Government was prepared to take the risky option of a military operation if there was a chance of success.

The Foreign Office has, however, denied rumours that Mr Bigley died when a rescue attempt was imminent, although it is known that American troops have been active around Latifya in recent days.

While the intelligence team and its SAS squad was trying to find Mr Bigley, other strategies were being employed to secure his release.

For almost a month Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, maintained almost daily contact with Mr Bigley's relatives in Liverpool.

Two weeks ago he flew to Iraq for an unannounced visit, his first since the handover of power in June.

He first toured the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, holding them up as a model for security and progress, before travelling to Baghdad. Aides insist the trip was long-scheduled and had nothing to do with the kidnapping.

But Mr Straw touched down the day after an unidentified intermediary first approached the British Embassy in Baghdad and announced that he was in direct contact with the kidnappers.

In a press conference for Iraq-based journalists the day after his arrival, Mr Straw made clear that channels were open.

"We can't enter into negotiations, but obviously, if the hostage-takers have a message for us, we will listen carefully to that message," he said.

By the next day Ayad Allawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, was hinting that the signs were "quite good" for a positive outcome. There was speculation that Mr Bigley might have been handed over to a different group, which might be willing to ransom him.

Behind the scenes, British diplomats in Baghdad were working frantically to establish the motives of the intermediary. Despite the doubts, messages approved by Mr Straw and Prime Minister Tony Blair were exchanged with al-Tauhid.

At the same time, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, the Libyan leader, was offering his own lifeline. Mr Gadaffi, with whom Mr Straw has built a good relationship, thanks to British efforts to restore diplomatic ties with Libya, offered cash from his own charitable foundation in exchange for the captive, with much of the ransom to be spent on clinics in towns where support for Zarqawi is strong.

Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, also appealed for Mr Bigley's release. A delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain also travelled to Baghdad and, it is believed, spoke to representatives of the Association of Sunni Muslim Clerics, a hardline group with links to some hostage-taking groups.

But the hopes raised by the appearance of the intermediary were quickly dashed. Diplomatic sources say the man, who did indeed appear to be in touch with al-Tauhid, simply repeated the group's earlier demands for the release of Iraqi women prisoners allegedly taken captive in recent weeks.

With Britain always insisting that it has no women in custody, save two "high-value" women scientists, no one in London or Baghdad could be sure whether this was a genuine attempt to negotiate or merely an attempt to prolong the saga.

Privately the Foreign Office noted the difference between the treatment that had been meted out to the American hostages – almost instant execution – and to the Briton, who had been kept alive for more than three agonising weeks and used to torment the Prime Minister through the increasingly emotive images of him on film.

Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, told Radio 4's Any Questions? program that the Bigley family had been subjected to a "cruel game of cat and mouse".

Alongside the Government's efforts, the family had also tried to use what leverage it had through the media to appeal to anyone who might have influence over the hostage-takers, rejecting Foreign Office advice to avoid the television cameras.

Much of the Bigleys' campaign was co-ordinated by Ken's younger brother, Paul, 55, from his home in Amsterdam. He organised appeals on Arabic satellite channels that the hostage-takers were known to watch.

Leaflets were distributed in the areas where Mr Bigley might have been held, aimed not at convincing the militants but at undercutting any support they might have in the community.

A familial link to Ireland produced, at the beginning of the week, an Irish passport; perhaps, it was thought, enough to deflect the kidnappers.

When the contacts were first made with al-Tauhid , Mr Bigley's family in Liverpool and his wife, Sombat, in Thailand, were told immediately.

For a brief moment there was hope. But not for long. On the Thursday evening the family was warned that it was likely that news of Mr Bigley's death would emerge the next day.

When his death was confirmed, two of his brothers – Philip, 49, and Stan, 67 – made an emotional statement.

Philip said the family felt the Government had done all it could to try to secure the release of their brother. "It could be that the fate of Ken . . . was sealed from day one," he said.

The two men talked about the impact that the hostage crisis had had on their 86-year-old mother Lil, who spent part of the time in hospital after collapsing more than once in her home, unable to cope with the immense stress.

"The bereavement of a child, no matter how old, is hard enough without this additional anguish," Philip said.

They went on to thank all those who prayed for them, emphasising that they were referring to those "from all religious backgrounds".

They described Mr Bigley as a truly wonderful "father, husband, brother and son", who they would remember for his "love, compassion and, above all, his Liverpool sense of humour", before adding that the "horror of these final days will haunt us forever".

"We tried everything we could but it was not enough," he said. "I will always believe there is one man who could have done more. But he didn't.

"Mr Blair has blood on his hands. Please, please stop this war and prevent other lives being lost. It is illegal and has to stop."

Mr Blair offered condolences to the family via a televised address. He said he felt "desperately sorry for Kenneth Bigley and his family" and "utter revulsion at the people who did this, not just at the barbaric nature of the killing, but the way, frankly, they have played with the situation over the past few weeks".

In Thailand Mr Bigley's 42-year-old wife, Sombat, was also informed. She was said to be "devastated" and was being comforted by her sister.

Mr Bigley had been due to finish his work in Iraq a week ago and would have been beginning his retirement in Thailand.

It is unlikely Mr Bigley had heard, or even seen, the executions of the men who had been abducted with him. But there is little doubt that he knew what his fate was to be.

That may have prompted the escape attempt that was reported by the intermediary who delivered the messages to al-Tauhid.

Reuters news agency reported that Mr Bigley had managed to get away from his captors for a brief period shortly before being killed. Quoting "insurgent sources", the agency said Mr Bigley managed to get away for about half an hour with the help of one of his captors before he was caught.

Other reports indicated that Mr Bigley might have been on the run for at least 12 hours before being located in a door-to-door search by the militants.

Whether or not he had made a desperate bid to escape, Mr Bigley was dead by Thursday afternoon last week.

His captors had a further brutal refinement of their execution technique: they forced their captive to make a final statement to the camera.

Then three men held him down. Another drew a knife and killed him, holding up his head to the camera.

The news of his death was delivered to the British Embassy in Baghdad last Thursday week but could not be formally confirmed by the Government until the next day.

By that time Mr Straw was already en route to Liverpool for an emotional meeting with the Bigley family, spending an hour in their terraced home.

For what it is worth. My nephew, a Marine in the 2nd Batallion 2nd Marine Regiment (2/2) attached to the 1 Marine Expeditionary Force (1MEF) in Iraq, who was until
last week at Camp Mahmudiya Iraq, about six miles north of the town of Latifya. On Septemeber 06, 2004 executed a SASO (Security and Stablization Operation) in Latifya.
Where they totally searched every dwelling in that town for insurgents, weapon caches etc.. About 600 Marines from 2/2 along with quite a few Iraqi Police surrounded the town, and after a rather vicouse fire fight, in which my nephew almost lost his life (he was close to a truck that exploded, and received small arms fire, returning fire to the enemy of course), killed and captured every insurgent in that town, as well as recovered all fire arms and weapon caches.
Now, the town was (2/2 returned last week to Camp Lejeune), a daily target of recon and security patrols by these Marines, beings it was so close to their base, as well as to the north/south route 8 that leads directly into the city of Baghdad.
So though I do not in any way disagree with the conditions in this town and the type of town it is, I wonder if the poor man was killed elsewhere then his body was placed in the town proper.
In any case, Lord willing our guys will continue to root them out and bring peace to that land soon. Sure seems like many Iraqi's are getting quite angry with the various insurgent groups as more of their innocent people are killed. The Iraqi Governments present position on allowing the Iraqi Army and Marines to surround then start to do some real damage to the insurgents in Fallujah sure is a good sign that they (IG) is finally starting to see the light. Yes my nephew Steve Lord willing was spared any injuries. Sure felt good to give him a big hug when he returned to C. Lejeune with 99.9% of his buddies. Six from 2/2 are now with the Lord.

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