Body found confirmed to be the Japanese hostage The headless corpse found Saturday in Baghdad has turned out to be the Japanese hostage Shosei Koda, who was kidnapped in Iraq last week, Japan̢۪s Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said on Sunday. On Tuesday, a group kidnapped Koda in Iraq and threatened to execute him unless Japan [...]

Video shows Polish woman hostage in Iraq (Seattle Post-Intelligencer/AP) Iraqi extremists in videotape aired Thursday by Al-Jazeera television showed what they said was a Polish woman hostage held in Iraq and demanded that Poland remove all its troops from Iraq. The group, which called itself the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Fundamentalist Brigades, said the woman, who [...]

Tearful Hassan begs for release of all female prisoners in Iraq in new video (Guardian) Margaret Hassan, the British aid worker being held hostage in Iraq, was seen pleading for the release of all female prisoners in Iraq, in a new video released through al-Jazeera last night. The screening came within hours of the first [...]

Video: Japanese hostage to be beheaded (AP-USA Today) Video posted Tuesday on a militant Islamic Web site showed what it claimed was a Japanese captive kidnapped by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group and threatened to behead him within 48 hours unless Japan pulls its troops from Iraq. Japanese Hostage in Iraq Threatened with Beheading (VOA) A [...]

The Army of Ansar al-Sunnah, of hostage beheading fame, has issued a press release endorsing John Kerry for president: Praise be to Allah, it increased the joy in our hearts that John Kerry, the presidential candidate criticized the Bush governmentfor taking so long in making this declaration. The one who may be president of America [...]

Video: Kidnapped Turkish Driver Beheaded (ABC News – AP) A man identified as a Turkish truck driver kidnapped in Iraq was beheaded in a video shown on an Islamic Web site Thursday. The Arabic-language Web site said the trucker’s name was Ramadan Elbu, and he showed an identity document and spoke a few words in [...]

Boy threatens to behead 7-year-old student (UPI) A 10-year-old boy, who allegedly threatened to behead 7-year-old classmate Nathan Williams outside their school in Dudley, England, has been expelled. The grandfather of the alleged victim said the unidentified 10-year-old of Asian descent might have been influenced by recent gruesome scenes from Iraq on television, the Mirror [...]

Mark Steyn‘s latest column, on the Kenneth Bigley beheading, was pulled by his editors at the Telegraph for being too insensitive. He has published it, instead, on his website. He argues that the Blair government’s maudlin treatment of the Bigley case does not befit a great nation and only encourages more kidnappings. He notes, too, [...]

As word of yet another human beheading by Islamist terrorists surfaces, this story via GoogleNews provides an interesting contrast: Life for beheading dog (Herald Sun) A man who beheaded a german shepherd he had named after his girlfriend has been sentenced to 25 years to life under California’s three-strikes law. James Abernathy, 43, was convicted [...]

Islamist Web site shows beheading of two hostages in Iraq;another Turkish hostage threatened (AP) An Islamic Web site on Monday showed the beheading of two hostages one a Turkish contractor and the other an Iraqi Kurdish translator wearing a badge of the Titan security company. A statement said the two were killed by the Ansar [...]

British Hostage Beheaded in Iraq, Insurgents Say (Reuters) British hostage Ken Bigley was beheaded near Baghdad on Thursday afternoon, insurgent sources in the rebel-held town of Falluja said on Friday. Abu Dhabi Television, quoting “informed” sources in Iraq, had said earlier that the militant group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had killed [...]

British hostage in Iraq possibly handed over to another group:brother (Xinhuanet) The brother of Briton Kenneth Bigley who has been held hostage in Iraq said Monday that the hostage might have been handed over to a group which was preparing to make a ransom demand. Bigley was kidnapped on Sept. 16 in Baghdad along with [...]

Several conflicting stories are floating around about two decapitated bodies found this weekend in Baghdad. Two bodies found near Baghdad (Aljazeera) “The decapitated man and the woman, who was shot dead, were brought to the hospital last night” by the Iraqi national guard, according to a hospital official in the town of Mahmudiya, 40km south [...]

Internet Video Shows Militant Beheading Iraqi (Reuters) An Iraqi Islamist group beheaded an Iraqi contractor it said was working for U.S. forces, a video on an Islamist Web site showed Saturday. The footage from the group, Ansar al-Sunna, showed a militant beheading the man, identified as Iraqi national Barea Nafea Dawoud Ibrahim. The group said [...]

UK rules out Bigley hostage deal (BBC) Downing Street has stressed that the government’s position on no negotiating with terrorists remains unchanged. Tony Blair said he would talk to the kidnappers holding Ken Bigley in Iraq but said it would be “completely wrong” to give in to their demands. And Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said: [...]

Italians Rejoice Over Release of Aid Workers in Iraq (VOA) Italians are rejoicing Wednesday after two female aid workers arrived home following three weeks of captivity at the hands of militants in Iraq. Simona Pari and Simona Torretta were freed Tuesday and flew to Rome. As they enjoyed what Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called their [...]

Bill Safire argues that we’ve seen the arrival of “The Kidnap Weapon,” a new political force to be reckoned with: The Zarqawi terrorist network in Iraq has developed a powerful new weapon. It requires no munitions and no suicide zealots, runs no risk to terrorists of death or capture and provides cash to finance other [...]

Images of horror top sellers in Baghdad’s ‘thieves market’ (AFP) Hostage throat-slitting videos rub shoulders with pornography in the stalls of central Baghdad’s infamous “thieves market”, as Islamic radicals immortalise their acts of terror in grisly films like Monday’s beheading of a US national. The latest video, posted on Monday night on an Islamic website, [...]

Zarqawi Group Says Kills U.S. Hostage in Iraq-TV (Reuters) A militant group headed by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has killed an American captive in Iraq after the lapse of a 24-hour deadline on Tuesday, Arabic channel Al Jazeera said. It said a statement announcing the killing by the Tawhid and Jihad group had [...]

American Hostage Killed in Iraq (AP) A Web site posting Monday claimed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group has beheaded one of the American hostages in Iraq and that others would soon be killed. The claim could not be verified. The short statement was posted by a Web site contributor using the pseudonym Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, [...]

Militants Show the Beheading of 3 Kurdish Hostages (NYT) A militant group on Sunday posted a gruesome Internet video showing the beheading of three men said to be members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two major Kurdish political parties in Iraq. A statement by the group, the Army of Ansar al-Sunna, that was [...]

Two Italian Aide Workers Kidnapped in Iraq (NYT) A previously unknown Islamic group claiming links to an Al Qaeda leader took responsibility today for kidnapping two Italian aide workers who were seized from their home at gunpoint. A group calling itself the Al Zawahiri Loyalists said it had kidnapped the two Italian aide workers, Simona [...]

IRAQ: The Politics of Kidnapping (StrategyPage) The kidnapping and murder of foreigners is backfiring on Iraqi gangs. One group, the Islamic Army, is holding two French journalists and demanding that France rescind a new law that forbids forbids Moslem girls from wearing headscarves to school. France refuses to do this, as the law is popular [...]

3 Turkish Hostages in Iraq Executed by Kidnappers, Jazeera Says (Bloomberg) Kidnappers in Iraq said they killed three Turkish hostages, al-Jazeera television news reported, showing a video of the three men kneeling on the ground before their captors. Qatar-based al-Jazeera said it received the video from the Tawhid wal Jihad group showing the execution. The [...]

Militants: 12 Nepalese ‘killed’ (CNN) An Islamic Web site has posted gruesome still images and videos of what it says is the killing of 12 Nepalese hostages by a militant group in Iraq. Footage posted on Tuesday showed one beheading and 11 others apparently shot from an assault rifle at the back of the head. [...]

France Says Will Not Yield To Iraqi Kidnappers On Headscarf Ban (Turkish Press – AFP) France on Monday vowed not to yield to Islamic militants holding two journalists hostage in Iraq, pledging to implement a ban on headscarves in state schools this week despite threats by the kidnappers. “The law will be applied” from the [...]

Web Site Shows ‘Beheading of American Spy’ in Iraq (Reuters) An Islamic militant group posted pictures on its Web site on Wednesday of what it said was the beheading of a man it called a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency spy in Iraq. Army of Ansar al-Sunna’s site showed five sequential photographs of the apparent beheading [...]

AP – Islamic Web site has pictures of beheading An Islamic Web site posted still pictures Friday that purportedly show Iraqi militants beheading an Egyptian man they claim was spying for the U.S. military. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the images, and there was no record that the man, identified on [...]

Reuters – Video Purportedly Shows Killing of Iraq ‘CIA Agent’ A Web site used by Islamic militants carried a video on Wednesday purporting to show militants beheading a “CIA agent” in Iraq. The four-minute long footage showed a Western-looking man sitting on a chair surrounded by armed masked men. One of the men struck the [...]

NYT – Videotape Shows No Proof G.I. Is Dead, Pentagon Says [no RSS] Military investigators found that a videotape held no proof that Iraqi militants had executed Specialist Keith Matthew Maupin, an American soldier who disappeared in Iraq, and soldiers and civilians continue to search for him, Maj. Mark Magalski, an Army liaison officer assisting [...]

I was wondering why my July 28 post Bulgarian Beheading Photo was suddenly drawing renewed attention. Now I know: AP – Militants Behead Man in Video on Internet Four masked, black-clad men who said they belong to a group that has claimed responsibility for kidnappings and killings in Iraq beheaded a man identified only as [...]

Update (0857): Scotsman РAmerican Fakes Own Decapitation A video aired today that purportedly showed an American being decapitated was a hoax. The man from San Francisco, said he videotaped the staged beheading at his friend̢۪s house using fake blood. On the tape, Benjamin Vanderford, 22, sat on a chair in a dark room, his [...]

Reuters – Website shows video of Turkish hostage death Islamist websites have showed a videotape of the killing of a Turkish hostage in Iraq by a group linked to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The tape, carried by several Islamist sites on Monday, showed a masked man shooting the hostage while he was seated [...]

Hindu News Update Service – Al-Zarqawi’s terrorist group kidnaps Somali driver in Iraq Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terrorist group has kidnapped a Somali truck driver in Iraq and threatened to behead him if his Kuwaiti company doesn’t stop working here, according to a videotape broadcast by Al-Jazeera today. The videotape, released by the Tawhid [...]

News24 (SA) – Hostages executed in Iraq A militant group holding two Pakistani contractors hostage said on Wednesday it had killed the men, according to the Pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera. The group, calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, announced in a video sent to Al-Jazeera on Monday that it had kidnapped two Pakistanis working [...]

Reuters – Picture of Bulgarian’s Severed Head Posted on Net An al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq posted a picture of what it said was the severed head of a Bulgarian hostage on the Internet on Wednesday. The picture showed a masked man holding up a bloody head in front of a black flag of the [...]

VOA – Militant Group in Iraq Kidnaps Egyptian Diplomat. A videotape broadcast on Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera Friday, showed a group of black-clad masked militants standing behind a man identified as diplomat Mohammed Qutb. The group says the abduction is in response to Cairo’s willingness to provide Iraq’s interim government with security expertise. The Egyptian [...]

Toronto Star (AP) – Another decapitated body found in Iraq Police discovered a decapitated body in an orange jumpsuit and a head in a bag on the banks of the Tigris River, authorities said today, leading to fears a second Bulgarian hostage had been killed. The deepening hostage crises across Iraq prompted Kenya to call [...]

Reuters – Iraq Group Threatens to Kill 6 New Hostages An Iraqi group threatened in a video tape aired Wednesday to kill six hostages from India, Kenya and Egypt if the Kuwaiti company they worked for did not pull out from Iraq, Al Arabiya television reported. The Dubai-based television aired the tape of what it [...]

CNN – Saudis find U.S. hostage’s head The head of slain U.S. hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., who was kidnapped and beheaded in Saudi Arabia last month, has been found in a Riyadh villa, a Saudi Interior Ministry official said. The head was discovered in a freezer during raids against militants that began Tuesday night. [...]

AP – American’s Decapitation Shown on Internet Images of an American hostage being decapitated surfaced Saturday on an Internet site known for carrying the statements of Islamic militants. The gruesome videotape appeared three days after U.S. authorities announced the search for the body of Paul M. Johnson Jr. had been called off. Still photographs of [...]

Jeff Quinton has heard television reports that al Qaeda has murdered (presumably, beheaded) a Bulgarian hostage. There have now been enough of these that I was unaware that they had even taken a Bulgarian hostage. Update (1635): The online reports are coming in now, although they’re rather sketchy: Fox News – Report: Bulgarian Hostage Executed [...]

A rather odd juxtaposition of headlines: Reuters – Manila to Withdraw from Iraq ‘As Soon as Possible’ The Philippines will withdraw its forces from Iraq (news – web sites) “as soon as possible,” Philippine deputy foreign minister Rafael Seguis said on Monday in a statement he read out on al Jazeera television. “In response to [...]

Conflicting accounts on the fate of the Filipino hostage taken two days ago. Bloomberg – Filipino Hostage in Iraq Is Freed, His Wife Says (Update1) New Straits Times – Philippine hostage reportedly freed as Manila refuses to bow to militants A Philippine hostage seized by militants in Iraq has been freed, reports said, after Manila [...]

ABC News/AP – Marine Who Vanished in Iraq Now in Germany A U.S. Marine who vanished in a reported kidnapping in Iraq and resurfaced in Beirut more than two weeks later arrived Friday at a U.S. Air Force base in Germany, a spokesman said. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun arrived aboard a C-17 transport and was [...]

AP/ABC News – Al-Jazeera Broadcasts Tape of Iraq Hostage Al-Jazeera television Wednesday broadcast a videotape of armed men holding a Filipino hostage and threatening to kill him if the Philippines did not withdraw its small force from Iraq in three days. The three armed men who issued the threat stood behind the seated hostage with [...]

Victor Davis Hanson While we speculate idly about the nature of the attack to come, and the inability of our homeland-security forces to stop it, very few talk about what we should do post-facto if the promised disaster actually transpires. This is a surprising lapse if one believes an understood response helps in advance to [...]

Talk about burying your lede: Six paragraphs into a story about yet another car bombing in Iraq, AP reports, Also Tuesday, a group of armed, masked Iraqi men threatened to kill Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi if he did not immediately leave the country, accusing him of killing innocent Iraqis and defiling the Muslim religion. [...]

From Alan at Command Post: CNN TV just broke with this … has the Marine’s brother on TV, saying they have a “sign” that they can’t discuss, but that Sami Hassoun is “free and safe.” They don’t know where he is, but the family is saying “he is alive and he has been released.” The [...]

CNN BREAKING NEWS: Iraqi Islamist group says it has moved abducted U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun to “a place of safety,” Al-Jazeera television reports. Details soon. UPDATE: Report: Captured Marine in safe place An Iraqi Islamic militant group says it is holding a U.S. Marine in “a place of safety,” according to a statement from [...]