Spiritual leader of Iraqi hostage-takers killed

The spiritual leader of the group holding Briton Kenneth Bigley has been killed in a US air strike, Islamic clerics said today.

Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, 35, was killed when a missile hit his car in Baghdad last Friday, said the clerics.

Al-Shami was an aide to Tawhid and Jihad’s leader, the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.