IRAQ: The beheading of two hostages in Iraq - one a Kurdish translator, the other a Turkish contractor - was shown an Islamist website yesterday. A statement said the two were captured in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad by the Ansar al-Sunnah army.
Gulf TV station Al Jazeera said the group killed the two men after they "confessed" to having co- operated with American forces. The station said it would not air the entire video, which it said it had obtained from a website, because it was too gruesome.
The Ansar al-Sunnah army has kidnapped and killed several hostages in the past, including 12 Nepalese men, three Iraqi Kurds and an Iraqi contractor.
Earlier, another Arab TV station broadcast a video showing three hooded gunmen threatening to behead a Turkish hostage within three days unless the Americans release all Iraqi prisoners and all Turks leave Iraq.
The tape broadcast by Al-Arabiya television showed three gunmen standing behind a hostage said to be a Turkish truck driver. One of the gunmen identified the kidnappers as members of Tawhid and Jihad, responsible for beheading several foreign hostages in Iraq, including Ken Bigley last Thursday.
However, the tape did not feature the group's banner which has always appeared in Tawhid and Jihad video statements.