American Hostage Jack Hensley Beheaded

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 been posted on the Internet. It gave no further details.

Rusty Shackleford has more.

Update:

Web Site Claims U.S. Hostage Killed in Iraq (AP)

An Islamic Web site posting Tuesday claimed an al-Qaida-related group slaughtered a second American hostage in Iraq, an announcement that came as the group’s 24-hour deadline for meeting its demands expired. “The nation’s zealous children slaughtered the second American hostage … after the end of the deadline,” said the statement. The posting was made under the pseudonym Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, who has posted past statements on behalf of Tawhid and Jihad, a militant group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Although the brief statement did not identify by name who had been killed, the announcement came a day after graphic footage of the beheading of American construction engineer Eugene Armstrong. That videotape had threatened to kill another of the three hostages abducted Thursday with Armstrong – either American Jack Hensley or Briton Kenneth Bigley. The Tuesday night statement said the American had been killed. It said video of the killing would be posted “soon.”

Still not much on GoogleNews.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.