- CAIRO, Egypt -- A videotape
posted by on a Web site Saturday showed the beheading of three hostages
said to be members of an Iraqi Kurdish party, slain for cooperating with
American forces, according to their Islamic militant captors.
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- A statement with the video was signed by the Ansar al-Sunna
Army, which in August released footage showing 12 Nepalese hostages being
killed.
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- The statement identified the hostages as three members
of the Kurdistan Democratic Party who the group said were captured in a
roadblock near Taji, 15 miles north of Baghdad.
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- The video shows three young men showing their identity
cards. Seconds later, each has his throat slit. A man is seen cutting off
each hostage's head. The heads are then seen placed on the backs of the
victims.
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- The "renegade military men, affiliated with the
traitor Kurdistan Democratic Party" were beheaded, and their bodies
were left on the road to Mosul "for them to be an example to others,
and for us to revenge our women, children and elderly who die daily from
American raids," the statement said.
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- The statement's authenticity could not be immediately
verified.
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- The Ansar al-Sunna Army has been accused in a number
of attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces. On Aug. 31, a video released in its
name showed 12 Nepalese workers being killed ó one of them beheaded
and the remaining ones shot with an assault rifle.
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- About 120 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, and
many have been killed by their captors. Insurgents have carried out most
of the kidnappings in a bid to drive foreign companies out of Iraq and
thwart the U.S.-led reconstruction of the country.
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- Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
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- http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/200409
19/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_kurdish_hostages_2
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