Website shows hostage's head

2004-07-28 17:44

Dubai - An Islamist website published a photograph on Wednesday of a bloodied head it claimed was that of one of two Bulgarians taken hostage earlier this month in Iraq by an al-Qaeda-linked group.

The picture showed a masked man holding up a head covered with blood in front of a black flag of the Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War) group of alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

The site said it took the photo from the Tawhid wa al-Jihad's website.

"The mujahedeen promised us to distribute on the Tawhid wa al-Jihad site a film of the beheading of the Bulgarian whose government insisted on refusing the demands of the mujahedeen," said the website.

Fingerprints matched

Bulgaria's foreign ministry said on July 22 that a headless body found in the Tigris River in Iraq last week was that of a Bulgarian hostage executed by a group linked to Al-Qaeda.

"We have reliable information that the fingerprints of the body found on July 15 in the Tigris match those of Georgy Lazov," said the ministry.

Lazov, 30, was taken hostage on July 8 near Mosul with Ivailo Kepov, 32, whose fate remains unknown. Tawhid wa al-Jihad claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television announced on July 13 that one of the two Bulgarian truck drivers had been decapitated by his kidnappers, and showed a brief video of the man before his murder.

In the Al-Jazeera video, the kidnappers also threatened to kill the second Bulgarian hostage if the United States army did not free Iraqi prisoners within 24 hours.

Bulgaria has 470 troops stationed in Iraq.

- AFP