IRAQ: Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq beheaded a US civilian and said there would be more killings in revenge for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, an Islamist web site stated yesterday.
A poor quality videotape on the site showed a man dressed in orange overalls sitting bound on a white plastic chair in a bare room, then on the floor with five masked men behind him.
"My name is Nick Berg, my father's name is Michael . . . I have a brother and sister, David and Sara," said the bound man, adding that he was from Philadelphia. After one of the masked men read out a statement, they pushed Berg to the floor and shouted "God is greatest" above his screams as one of them sawed his head off with a large knife.
The web site said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a top ally of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was the executioner. The statement read out before the killing was signed off with Mr Zarqawi's name and dated May 11th.
"I knew he was decapitated before," said Nick Berg's father, Michael. "That manner is preferable to a long and torturous death. But I didn't want it to become public." He criticised the US military and Bush administration, saying his son might still be alive had he not been detained by US officials in Iraq without being charged and without access to a lawyer.
Nick Berg, a small telecommunications business owner, spoke to his parents on March 24th and told them he would return home on March 30th. But he was detained by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Mosul on March 24th. He was turned over to US officials and detained for 13 days.
His father, Michael, said his son wasn't allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer.
A body found in Baghdad over the weekend was identified on Monday as Berg before the videotape was released. "Berg's body was found with his hands behind his back and beheaded," said another US official who declined to be identified. "He was a private American citizen not associated with a military contract," said a State Department official.