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Another American beheaded

2004-08-07 11:58

Cairo, Egypt - An al-Qaeda-linked militant group posted a video on a website on Saturday that showed an American man being decapitated moments after he urges the United States to pull out of Iraq.

The man on the tape identified himself as Benjamin Vanderford, from San Francisco, California.

"We need to leave this country alone. We need to stop this occupation," he said, rocking back and forth, looking nervous and trembling. He sat on a chair in a dark room, his hands behind his back.

The 55-second video, titled "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Slaughters an American," interspersed the footage with graphic clips of dismembered and disfigured adults and children in Iraq. A recording of the Quran, Islam's holy book, played in the background.

He said he had been offered for exchange with prisoners in Iraq.

"We need to leave this country right now," he said. "If we don't, everyone's going to be killed this way."

The video then showed the American lying on his left side, a knife cutting at his neck.

No militants were seen on the footage, unlike in previous videos of hostage killings. It was not known when the video was made.

Nothing else was known about the man and there had been no reports that anyone by his name had been captured.

The US military in Iraq and the US Embassy said they were unaware of the video and had no immediate comment.

Al-Zarqawi is an al-Qaeda linked militant whose group, Tawhid and Jihad, has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks across Iraq, including the beheadings of US businessman Nicholas Berg, South Korean translator Kim Sun-il and Bulgarian truck driver Georgi Lazov. Their beheadings were also filmed and the video posted on the internet.

The US military has struck numerous times at insurgent bases in an attempt to weaken al-Zarqawi's base of support.

- AP

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