Zarqawi, but they refused to abandon their demands. The group, which has been linked to al-Qaeda, originally demanded the release of women prisoners held in Iraq, in reference to two scientists alleged to have been involved in Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons programme. Bigley was abducted in the Baghdad suburb of Mansour along with two U.S. citizens, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, on September 16. Armstrong and Hensley were beheaded on September 20 and 21 respectively. The video released Friday showed six hooded and armed men standing behind the kneeling hostage, identified as Bigley. One of the six then speaks in Arabic for about a minute, saying he is carrying out "the sentence of execution against this hostage" because the British government "did not meet our demand". --More 2248 Local Time 1948 GMT
