American hostage Tom Fox was tortured before being shot dead and dumped beside a railway line in Baghdad, Iraqi police said today.
"His hands were tied behind him and he had gunshot wounds. There were signs of torture," a police source said.
Mr Fox, 54, was abducted along with three fellow activists from the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams in November by a group calling itself the "Swords of Truth".
The group had threatened to kill them unless all Iraqi prisoners were freed.
US embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said Mr Fox's body was on its way back to the United States. She had no comment on the nature of his death.
Iraqi police said Mr Fox's body was found beside a railway line in the capital's western Mansour district on Thursday night.
Fears about Fox's fate were raised earlier this week when Arabic television station al Jazeera aired a video dated February 28th showing only fellow activists Briton Norman Kember and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Sooden.
There was no word on Saturday on the fate of the three, who looked well in the video and did not appear distressed.
In the video the activists called on Gulf Arab leaders and their own governments to help free them. It was the first video since the hostage-takers said in January US forces had one last chance to free Iraqi prisoners or the men would be killed.
More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Fifty-four foreign hostages are known to have been killed by their captors.