Sounds like he almost made it.
M
Bigley's last few minutes
10oct04
BRITISH hostage Kenneth Bigley escaped briefly from his captors shortly before they beheaded him in Iraq, it was claimed last night.
Insurgent sources said Bigley managed to get away for about half-an-hour with the help of one of his captors before he was caught in farmland near the town of Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad.
Bigley was beheaded soon after his recapture.
"He never made it to the main street," one source said.
The fate of his accomplice was not immediately known. Bigley had been held by the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Jordanian Islamist militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
British and Iraqi officials have declined to comment on an earlier report from a Western security source that Bigley was killed after trying to escape with help from an insider, but they have denied that he died after a failed rescue attempt.
The British Government, which for three weeks refused to bargain with Bigley's kidnappers even after they killed his two US colleagues, revealed yesterday that it had contacted them in the days before his death.
A video of Bigley's death was released in Baghdad yesterday. It showed the 62-year-old construction engineer desperately pleading for his life.
Bigley, unshaven and wearing an orange jumpsuit, pleaded to be spared before one of six men standing behind him severed his head with a knife.
"I need my government's help. I am a simple man. I want to live, " Bigley pleaded before his death.
His last words - and execution - were caught on the videotape, a copy of which was sent to an Arabic television station. The tape was not broadcast.
One of six men shown in the two-minute video read a statement similar to those of radical groups that have killed other hostages in Iraq, saying he would carry out "the sentence of execution against this hostage".
The gruesome death ended a tortuous three-week ordeal for Bigley, who was captured in Baghdad on September 16.
Outrage and mourning followed news of his death.
"I feel utter revulsion at the people who did this, not just at the barbaric nature of the killing, but the way they have played with the situation over the last few weeks," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. Bigley's home town of Liverpool held a day of mourning and Buckingham Palace sent relatives a message of condolence.
The Queen's message was addressed to Bigley's mother Lily, 86, who has been in hospital twice under the strain of the ordeal since her son was captured.
Bigley's Thai wife, Sombat, is believed to be with her family near Bangkok, where Bigley, planned to retire after his stint in Iraq with a US military contractor.
Bigley was held by Tawhid and Jihad (Unity and Holy War), the group led by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, which has claimed responsibility for the previous killing of foreign hostages. It demanded release of Iraqi women prisoners.
heraldsun.news.com.au |
