Iraqi militants shot dead an American soldier they have held hostage for nearly three months, saying he was killed because the US government did not change its policy in Iraq, Al-Jazeera television said today.

Truck driver Thomas Hamill, who has escaped from his captors in Iraq, was among seven employees of Halliburton subsidiary KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, missing since an attack on their convoy west of Baghdad, about 90 miles from Tikrit.

Suicide attackers detonated explosive-laden boats near oil facilities in the Gulf, killing two US Navy sailors in a new tactic against Iraq’s vital oil industry.

Iraqi fighters tonight paraded a 20-year-old captured American soldier on video.

Kidnappers are holding an American soldier hostage in Iraq, it was reported tonight.