U.S. Hostage Reportedly Killed In Iraq

(RFE/RL) 9 December 2005 -- An extremist group in Iraq says it has executed a U.S. hostage.

The White House said it had no confirmation of the death of the U.S. contractor.

A group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq said in an Internet statement that it had killed its captive because the U.S. government had not meet its demands, which included the release of all prisoners in Iraq.

In a video issued by the group and aired by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera on 6 December, the man was identified as Ronald Schulz, a 40-year-old industrial electrician from Alaska.

In another hostage case, a British man held for nearly three years at the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Moazzam Begg, has appealed in a statement broadcast on the BBC for another group to release four kidnapped Western peace activists.

The Swords of Righteousness Brigade group has threatened to execute the captives -- two Canadians, a Briton, and an American -- on 10 December unless its demands for the release of prisoners in Iraq are met.

(AP/Reuters/AFP)