Iraqi election internet workers executed

Two Iraqis who set up an internet system in have been executed by an rebel group and their deaths shown on a videotape posted on a website today.

The group that claimed to have carried out the killing, Ansar al-Sunnah Army, accused the Iraqis of working to ”facilitate the elections” on January 30.

In the video, the men are shot in the head as they kneel, blindfolded, against a stone wall.

Before their deaths each man read a statement in Arabic while sitting alone in front of an Ansar al-Sunnah banner. The first said he was an engineer working for an American company called Proactive.

He said he went to the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Irbil to set up internet connections “to facilitate the elections.”

Both men held a sheet of paper appeared to be a worksheet, headlined “SG.C2 Communications Program” and carrying the name, phone number and e-mail address of Major Robert Sile.

Major Sile said had not heard of the men’s deaths.

“They are not working directly for me. I never met them personally,” he said at his Baghdad office.

He recognised Proactive as a company that does contract work for the US military, but he said he was not sure whether the men worked for Proactive or for a subcontractor.