Video shows beheading of Iraqi
2005-04-05 16:54
Cairo - Videos posted on the internet on Tuesday showed militants purported to belong to al-Qaeda's ally in Iraq beheading a man said to be an Iraqi security force member and another group carrying out the execution-style killing of a reported informer.
In the purported tape from al-Qaeda in Iraq, a text shown in the footage identified the Iraqi National Guard member as Jassim Mohammed Hussein Mahdi, who appeared to be aged in his early 20s.
The video also showed the black banner of the group, which is headed by wanted Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The tape, posted on a militant website that carries most al-Qaeda in Iraq statements, could not be immediately authenticated. It showed an unidentified interrogator talking to Mahdi, who said he had received orders from his superiors "to kill the mujahedeen anywhere and without hesitation".
Mahdi was shown squatting on the ground in an empty room, wearing full military gear with his hands tied behind his back. He said he was a member of the Iraqi National Guard's 4th Brigade, but did not say when or where he had been captured by militants.
Mahdi said he "regretted" working with the US-allied Iraqi government and urged "all members of the police, National Guard and army to abandon this work, which is religiously prohibited".
Severed his head with a knife
"God's verdict against this renegade, who was tempted by dollars, has been carried out," said a statement shown on the tape. "Let everyone who sold his religion and joined this unit know that he will have the same fate."
The video later showed Mahdi lying blindfolded on the ground before two masked men appeared. One held Mahdi's legs while the other severed his head with a knife with shouts of "Allahu akbar" or "God is great" heard from the background.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for beheading numerous Western hostages and many members of the Iraqi security forces.
A second video tape posted on the same website by another group, Ansar al-Sunnah Army, showed a man who confessed to a militant interrogating him that he worked as an informer to the police in the northern city of Mosul. The militant was speaking in the distinct Mosul accent of Iraqi Arabic.
The man, who identified himself as Hussein Taha Qassim and said he was born in 1968, told the interrogator that he informed the police about the hideouts of four "mujahedeen". He said the police killed three of them and the fourth escaped.
In the next image, Qassim was shown lying face-down on the ground on the median of a two-way avenue, and a masked gunman shot him with a volley of bullets from an automatic weapon.
The video's authenticity could not be verified. Ansar al-Sunnah has claimed kidnapping and killing of several foreigners including twelve Nepalese construction workers whose death was shown in an August 31 video on the web.
- AP