Website shows murder of 12 hostages by militants
The methodical killings shown on the video would mark the largest number of foreign hostages killed at one time by insurgents in Iraq, who have seized more than 100 hostages in recent months in their drive to destabilise the country.
In a separate hostage crisis, the French government prepared for crisis talks to save the lives of journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who are being held by a different militant group that has demanded France rescind its ban on Muslim head scarves in schools.
Yesterday’s video showed a masked man in desert camouflage apparently slitting the throat of a blindfolded man lying on the ground. The masked man then displayed the head to the camera before resting it on the decapitated body.
Other footage showed a man firing single shots from an assault rifle into the back of the heads of 11 others.
The Nepalese Ambassador to Qatar Shyamananda Suman said he had heard the hostages were killed before the website posting.
“Despite our efforts, this unfortunate incident has taken place,” Mr Suman said. “It is sad.”
A statement on the website, signed Ansar al-Sunna Army, vowed to keep fighting the US in Iraq.
“America today has used all its force, as well as the help of others, to fight Islam under the so-called war on terror, which is nothing but a vicious crusade against Muslims,” it said.
Iyad Mansoor, director general of the Morning Star Company, a Jordan-based services firm that employed the Nepalese workers, said he had no independent information on their fate.
“I am shocked to hear such news,” he said.
The 12 men were travelling in two cars on August 19 when they disappeared after crossing the border from Jordan. The next day, a web statement from Ansar al-Sunna Army claimed to be holding them and demanded Nepal stop sending workers to Iraq.
Nepal has sent no troops to Iraq but armed Nepalese personnel - many former British Army Gurkhas - work for security firms.
Meanwhile, France intensified efforts to save the two journalists held hostage in Iraq, convening crisis talks in Paris and around the Arab world as a 24 hour execution deadline set by militants neared.
President Jacques Chirac said every effort was being made to free the journalists - although his government has steadfastly refused to cave in to kidnappers’ demands that a new law banning Islamic head scarves in French schools be scrapped.
