DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Militants have shot dead a Turkish hostage kidnapped in Iraq, according to a video posted on the Internet.
The video shows a man identified as a Turk kneeling in front of three armed men. The hostage reads a statement in Turkish identifying himself and his employer. The leader of the three presumed kidnappers then takes out a pistol and shoots the man in the side of the head.
The Turk slumps to the ground, and the kidnapper shoots him in the head twice more. Blood is seen on the ground next to his head. The date the video was taken was not given.
A black banner on the wall behind the kidnappers identified the group as the Tawhid and Jihad, which is led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search), a Jordanian militant linked to Al Qaeda (search).
On Saturday, Tawhid and Jihad released a video tape saying it had kidnapped two Turkish truck drivers and threatened to behead them within 48 hours. The tape, which was broadcast on the pan-Arab TV channel Al-Jazeera, showed the men's Turkish passports.
Al-Jazeera said the drivers worked for a Turkish company that delivered goods to U.S. forces in Iraq.
In Ankara, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm the killing of one of the Turkish hostages kidnapped last week in Iraq.
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