UK Captive Pleads for Life in Iraq, Italians Dead

Wed Sep 22, 2004 07:43 PM ET

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A British hostage in Iraq pleaded for his life on Wednesday, but two Italian women held by another group were reported to have been killed.

In a video issued online by his captors, Kenneth Bigley begged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to have women prisoners in Iraq freed to save his life, but his family's hopes that a deal might be done were quashed by U.S. and Iraqi officials.

"I need you to help me, Mr Blair, because you are the only person now on God's earth that I can speak to," Bigley said.

Britain said it had no contact with the kidnappers, would not negotiate and had little hope the 62-year-old contractor would be spared by Washington's most wanted man in Iraq, al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Iraq said there were no plans to free one of two of Saddam Hussein's weapons scientists, the only women Washington says it holds in Iraq, despite media speculation such a move might be imminent.

Another Islamist group, the Jihad Organization, said it had killed two female Italian hostages because Italy -- like Britain a key U.S. ally in the war on Iraq -- had not heeded its call to withdraw its forces.

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