Sad, Bloody End To Bigley SagaBy Rory McCarthy
09 October , 2004
The GuardianKen Bigley, the Briton whose caged and shackled image was broadcast around the world pleading for his life, and whose ordeal cast a pall over Downing Street and the conference season as his family begged directly to Tony Blair for help, has been murdered by his kidnappers.
A video showing the beheading of the 62-year-old by Islamist militants emerged in Baghdad yesterday - three weeks after he was kidnapped from his home in the capital - though it was not immediately broadcast on Arabic television.In the film, the British engineer appeared unshaven and wore an orange jumpsuit as he knelt before a line of six masked men dressed in black.
Mr Bigley made a plea for his life and one of the militants made a statement in Arabic, saying their demands that all women be freed from prisons in Iraq had not been met. The militant then pulled a knife from his belt. Three others held Mr Bigley down.
The killing came after days of pleas from Mr Bigley's family and private negotiations that many people had suggested could secure the Briton's release.
At a press conference last night, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, admitted that the government had exchanged messages with Mr Bigley's captors in recent days, but he refused to give details.
"Four days ago, an individual approached the British embassy in Baghdad, presenting himself as a potential intermediary with the captors," Mr Straw said. "It was very clearly in Mr Bigley's interests to establish contact.
"Messages were exchanged with the hostage takers in an attempt to dissuade them from carrying out their threat to kill Mr Bigley but at no stage did they abandon their demands relating to the release of women prisoners, even though they were fully aware there are no women prisoners in our custody in Iraq."
Mr Straw said he and the prime minister had approved the content of the messages, which he said did not contravene the government's policy on dealing with kidnappers.While secret efforts were being made to free Mr Bigley, a very public campaign - which included promises of help from Yasser Arafat, Muammar Gadafy, the British Council of Muslims and the Irish government - was mounted.
Sources from the insurgent stronghold of Falluja, west of Baghdad, told Reuters that Mr Bigley had been killed on Thursday afternoon in the nearby town of Latifiya, a violent Sunni district south-west of the capital.
Four days ago 3,000 US and Iraqi troops launched an operation in the area, which is believed to be on a supply route used to support insurgents in Falluja. Captain David Nevers, of the US 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which led the raid, said they had found no trace of Mr Bigley.
Several suspects in the area have been arrested over the past month, including one from a "target list" who was captured last Saturday.
The men in the videos showing Mr Bigley were members of the Tawhid and Jihad group led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has a $25m (£13.9m) bounty on his head. It is known that the SAS was involved in the hunt for Zarqawi, who is thought to be a leader of the insurgency.
Diplomats have questioned whether the militants really wanted women prisoners released, or simply wanted to frighten westerners out of Iraq. The US military has said it is holding only two women, both biological scientists from Saddam Hussein's regime regarded as "high value" detainees, and has ruled out their release.
Mr Bigley was kidnapped at dawn on September 16 with two of his American colleagues from their house in Mansour, a wealthy neighbourhood in west Baghdad. Within days Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley had been beheaded, their killings captured on videotape and posted on the internet. A string of similar videos from the same group have appeared in recent months, showing the killings of other foreigners and Iraqis.
But Mr Bigley was treated differently and twice footage was released of him dressed in an orange jumpsuit like the suspects held by the US at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and begging for his life.
"Tony Blair is lying, he is lying when he said he's negotiated. He has not negotiated. My life is cheap," he said in one video.
Mr Bigley, a civil engineer, had been working in Iraq for more than a year for a Middle Eastern contractor, Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services.
Yesterday Abu Dhabi television received a copy of a video showing Mr Bigley's killing. The channel announced his death in an afternoon news show but refused to broadcast the video itself. "Abu Dhabi TV refuses to serve as a mouthpiece for such groups or their actions," it said.
Mr Bigley's death brings to 32 the number of hostages who have been killed since April.
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