Bigley is dead - UK govt source

2004-10-08 13:58

London - Ken Bigley, a British hostage kidnapped in Baghdad last month, has been killed, Sky News television reported on Friday, quoting government sources.

A spokesperson for Downing Street, Prime Minister Tony Blair's office, declined to comment when contacted by AFP, but the foreign office said it was investigating reports on Abu Dhabi television that Bigley was dead.

"We are aware of the report," a foreign office spokesperson told AFP in London, adding: "We have no further comment at this time."

In Baghdad, the British embassy said on Friday it was trying urgently to confirm or deny reports that Bigley was dead.

"We are trying urgently to corroborate reports that Kenneth Bigley has been killed," said embassy spokesperson Victoria Whitford, adding that there had been no confirmation yet.

"We are in close contact with Bigley's family at this difficult time," she told AFP.

Bigley, 62, was kidnapped in the Iraqi capital on September 16 along with two US colleagues who have since been beheaded by their captors, the hardline Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group.

Bigley's brother Paul, who lives in Amsterdam, told Britain's domestic Press Association news agency: "I have heard these reports and I am looking into them right now."

He added that he wished to be left in peace while he investigated their authenticity.

Bigley's family, from his ailing mother in his hometown Liverpool to his Thai wife outside Bangkok, have issued emotional appeals for his release, to which Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi added his voice on Wednesday.

Earlier in the week Ireland - officially neutral during the Iraq war - announced that it had issued a passport to Bigley, who is part Irish, in hopes that that might sway his captors.

Tawhid wal Jihad initially called for the release of all women held in US-run prisons in Iraq, but more recently its demands have been unclear.

There has been no direct word from Bigley since September 29 when he appeared in a video shown on Al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language satellite news channel.

Kneeling behind bars, a tearful Bigley claimed his captors did not want to kill him. He also accused Blair of being a liar and doing nothing to secure his release.

Earlier this week Paul Bigley, who has also been critical of the British prime minister's discreet handling of the abduction, said he believed his brother was now in the hands of a more moderate group in Iraq.

On Thursday, Iraq's interim prime minister Iyad Allawi told BBC television that fresh developments in the Bigley case could be imminent.

"There are certain areas which are quite good. We are trying very hard. The situation is dynamic," Allawi was quoted as telling a BBC correspondent in Baghdad. "We don't know if it will produce a good result."

- AFP