Al Qaeda-Linked Group Beheads American in Iraq

The poor quality tape showed a man sitting on the floor with five masked men behind him. After one of the masked men read out a statement, they pushed the bound man to the floor, cutting off his head and holding it aloft.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the poor quality tape, carried on Muntada al-Ansar Islamist Web site, in which masked men said the execution was revenge for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

On the tape, the man identified himself as Nick Berg before the execution.

"My name is Nick Berg, my father's name is Michael.... I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah," said the man, who was shown bound and seated in a chair in the carried on Muntada al-Ansar Islamist Web site.

Photographs shown around the world of naked Iraqi prisoners stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad have provoked international anger and become a serious setback to U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have both apologized and pledged to punish those responsible but both governments have come under pressure for senior officials to be held responsible for the abuse.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20040511/ts_nm/iraq_usa_beheading_dc

An Islamic militant website has shown a video purporting to show the beheading of an American in Iraq.
The video - the contents of which could not be verified - showed five men in headscarves and ski masks cutting off the man's head with a knife.

Moments earlier, the victim said he was an American from Philadelphia.

The group, thought to be linked to al-Qaeda, said it was carrying out the execution in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers.

The poor-quality tape - shown on the Muntada al-Ansar site - began with the victim, bound and wearing an orange jumpsuit, sitting on the floor with five masked men behind him.

The victim identified himself as Nick Berg, a US contractor whose body was found near a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday.

One of the masked men read out a statement, saying they had offered to exchange the man for inmates of Abu Ghraib prison but the coalition authorities refused.

They then pulled the man to the side and put a knife to his neck.

The man screamed as he was executed.

His killers shouted "Allah is great" before holding what appeared to be a head up to the camera.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3705409.stm