BAGHDAD, Iraq – Islamic radicals in Iraq executed 12 Nepalese hostages, placing video images of the deaths on a Web site Tuesday, in the first mass killing of foreign prisoners in the spate of kidnappings that insurgents began in April.
The video shows a masked man in military fatigues beheading a hostage who is lying blindfolded on dusty, gray soil. Eleven more prisoners are then killed by single shots to the back of the head as they lie face down in a row.
The men, kidnapped in August while traveling overland from Jordan to jobs in Iraq, were described by their Jordanian employer as cooks and cleaners. Nepal has no troops in Iraq, but the kidnappers had demanded it stop sending contract workers to the country, according to the BBC. As many as 17,000 Nepalese are believed to be working in Iraq.
The executions appeared intended to frighten off the many foreigners who come to Iraq to work for U.S.-led forces.
It also underscored the peril facing two French journalists who have been threatened with death by their captors.
France’s foreign minister, Michel Barnier, traveled Tuesday to Jordan from Egypt, then returned to Egypt in an urgent effort to win support for the release of Georges Malbrunot, 41, and Christian Chesnot, 37, who were kidnapped in mid-August.
Their captors, who call themselves the Islamic Army in Iraq, have threatened to kill the men unless France repeals a ban on Islamic head scarves in its public schools. French officials have refused to change the law.
Meanwhile in the United States, prosecutors ended a military court hearing at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Tuesday for a soldier shown in photos of naked Iraqi prisoners by requesting an additional charge of “maltreatment and cruelty” against Pfc. Lynndie England.
The defense has said England and other members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company abused prisoners under orders from military intelligence agents to “soften up” prisoners for interrogation.
But military prosecutor Capt. Crystal Jennings said there was no evidence England ever was given an order to mistreat prisoners. In fact, Jennings said, England repeatedly violated orders to stay out of the part of the prison where the abuse occurred.
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