Berg's beheading revenge - tape
2004-07-07 11:31
Cairo - The captors of US hostage Nicholas Berg beheaded him rather than accept money for his release to avenge Muslims who had suffered at the hands of American-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an audiotape carrying a voice purporting to be that of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The 60-minute recording, which was first posted on Islamic Web sites Tuesday, claimed that there had been attempts - including the payment of money - to save Berg's life, but the speaker did not identify who was behind the rescue bids.
"They were ready to give us whatever sums of money we asked ... to save this infidel's life, but despite our desperate need of money to fund our jihad, we preferred to take revenge for our sisters and our nation," the speaker on the tape said.
The speaker slammed Islamic clerics, in particular top Iraqi Sunni cleric Harith al-Dari, for criticising Berg's killing rather than supporting "Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and Indonesia" and "stopping the rape of our Muslim sisters in Abu Ghraib prison".
"Haven't you heard them (the clerics) condemning the beheading of the American Berg," the voice on the tape said. "They condemned (the killing) because they were afraid of fighting the infidels (Americans)."
Muslim religious leaders and Arab officials condemned Berg's beheading as un-Islamic, while many extremist Muslims through Islamic Web sites have said decapitating foreigners was justified.
Not verified
Al-Dari, who heads Islamic Clerics Committee, the highest Sunni organisation in, has been involved in past efforts to secure the release of foreign hostages in Iraq.
There was no way to immediately verify the voice on the tape as being al-Zarqawi's, but the recorded voice sounded similar to that of the Jordanian-born militant's.
The tape's release follows a series of US-conducted air raids on buildings in the restive city of Fallujah, west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, believed to be al-Zarqawi safe houses.
Berg's decapitated body was found May 8 near a highway overpass in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. He was last seen on April 10 when he left his Baghdad hotel. His killers released a videotape, bearing the title "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American", which captured his beheading.
His death, and the beheadings of South Korean hostage Kim Sun-il in Iraq and US engineer Paul M Johnson jun in Saudi Arabia, sparked debate throughout the Islamic world about the grisly form of punishment used by Muslim extremists.
US intelligence officials have determined "with high probability" that it was al-Zarqawi himself who beheaded Berg based on an analysis of the voice heard on the video, a CIA official has said on condition of anonymity.
- AP