LONDON, 10 October 2004 — From revelations of an anonymous intermediary to rumors of commando operations and a failed escape attempt, the fate of Kenneth Bigley has raised more questions than answers.
Twenty-four hours after his family confirmed his killing, the circumstances surrounding the death of the first British hostage in Iraq remained unclear — and were likely to remain so for some time to come.
Yesterday the British Embassy in Baghdad said it was “making every effort” to recover Bigley’s body, but gave no further details — including where it might be found.
Unconfirmed reports suggested that he was executed Thursday in Latifiya, a Sunni town southwest of Baghdad — not far from insurgent-held Fallujah, a stronghold of wanted Tawid Wal Jihad kingpin Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
The broad area has been the scene of intensive US-led military operations as coalition forces attempt to snuff out insurgents in the run-up to Iraqi elections in January 2005.
The Sun newspaper yesterday reported that a “hit team” from Britain’s elite Special Air Services (SAS) commando unit were closing in on Latifiya along with comrades from the US army’s Delta force.
The Foreign Office in London meanwhile refused to confirm or deny media reports that Bigley had escaped briefly, with the help of an insider, before being recaptured and beheaeded.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari was also at a loss to confirm the claims, attributed to insurgent sources. “I really at this stage have no full certain information to confirm this report,” he told BBC radio.
Mystery also surrounded revelations from Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Friday that the British government had made contact — but no concessions — with the kidnappers earlier this week.
Straw said messages were swapped with the captors in a bid to save Bigley after an unidentified intermediary made contact with the British Embassy in Baghdad last Tuesday.
“It was clearly in Bigley’s interests that we should do all we could to make contact,” he said. “Messages were exchanged with the hostage takers in an attempt to dissuade them from carrying out their threat to kill Bigley.”
Straw added: “At no stage did they abandon their demands relating to the release of women prisoners, even though they were fully aware there are no women prisoners in our custody in Iraq.”
The Times newspaper said yesterday that the intermediary reportedly carried proof that he was authorized to speak for the captors and claimed it was a genuine attempt to resolve the crisis peacefully.
The newspaper also reported that another complex deal was being thrashed out by international diplomats, religious clerics, tribal chiefs and Iraqi doctors.
It quoted British diplomatic sources as saying that “an unprecedented effort” was put into trying to free Bigley — and that the name of the intermediary would likely never be revealed.
