Bigley beheaded despite secret talks with captors

AL-QAIDA-linked militants in Iraq beheaded hostage Kenneth Bigley despite last-ditch secret appeals from the British government.

British officials last night also denied there had been a botched rescue bid.

They ruled out speculation Mr Bigley was killed on Thursday because of a rescue attempt or midweek sweeps by US forces in Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain’s contact in recent days was an attempt to dissuade the terrorists from carrying out their threat.

The messages between London and the kidnappers began after a man approached the British embassy in Baghdad earlier this week presenting himself as a potential intermediary.

Mr Straw said last night: “I don’t believe there was or could have been anything further we could have done.”

A Reuters journalist saw a video in Baghdad of the killing in which Kenneth Bigley appeared to plead for his life as six men stood behind him.

One read a statement, then cut off Bigley’s head with a knife and brandished it.

Abu Dhabi television said it had received the video but refused “to serve as a mouthpiece for such groups” by showing the footage.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted his government did everything it could to secure the release of the British-born 62-year-old civil engineer.

“Hostage-takers must not be allowed to win,” he said. “I feel utter revulsion at the people who did this, not just at the barbaric nature of the killing but the way they played with the situation over the past few weeks.”

Mr Bigley’s brother Paul urged Mr Blair to end the war in Iraq.

“Mr Blair has blood on his hands,” he said.

In a videotape released by his kidnappers last week, Mr Bigley made a final appeal for help. “Tony Blair is lying, he is lying when he said he’s negotiated,” the hostage said. “He has not negotiated. My life is cheap.”

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern last night expressed outrage at the execution.

“This callous murder of an innocent man is a most shocking and brutal outrage,” he said.

“The perpetrators have shown a total lack of mercy and humanity and in doing so have reached new depths of barbarism.”

Mr Bigley was seized with two Americans from their Baghdad home on September 16. His colleagues were beheaded within a week of their capture.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - a suspected ally of Osama bin Laden - had planned to kill Mr Bigley from the outset. Confirming there was no military rescue attempt, he said: “We are determined to pursue those terrorists who killed Mr Bigley.”