Militants threaten to behead South Korean hostage :(

Sad

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...aq_south_korea


Iraqi Militants Behead Korean Hostage

23 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!

CAIRO, Egypt - An Iraqi militant group has beheaded its South Korean hostage, Al-Jazeera television reported Tuesday. The South Korean foreign ministry issued a statement confirming the report.

Kim's body was found by the U.S. military between Baghdad and Fallujah, west of the capital, at 5:20 p.m. Iraq (news - web sites) time, said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil.

The South Korean embassy in Bagdad confirmed that the body was Kim's by studying a picture of the remains it received by e-mail, Shin said.

"It breaks our heart that we have to announce this unfortunate news," he said.

Kim, 33, worked for a South Korean company supplying the U.S. military in Iraq and was abducted last week, according to the South Korean government

Kim was shown in the videotape kneeling, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to those issued to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The tape showed five hooded men standing behind Kim, one reading a statement and gesturing with his right hand. Another captor had a big knife slipped in his belt.

One of the masked men said the message was intended for the Korean people. "This is what your hands have committed. Your army has not come here for the sake of Iraqis, but for cursed America."
The video as broadcast did not show Kim being executed.

Al-Jazeera said the video claimed the execution was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked group Monotheism and Jihad.

News of the apparent beheading reached the White House in the midst of a briefing by spokesman Scott McClellan, who said he was not aware of the report.

"That would be horrible news," McClellan said. "There simply is no justification for those kinds of atrocities that the terrorists carry out. We've seen some of the barbaric nature of the terrorists recently when it comes to an American citizen that was killed in Saudi Arabia and it is a reminder of the true nature of the terrorist."

Al-Jazeera did not say when Kim was killed.

Kim's kidnappers had initially threatened to kill him at sundown Monday unless South Korea (news - web sites) canceled a troop deployment to Iraq. The Seoul government rejected the demand, standing firm with plans to dispatch 3,000 soldiers starting in August.

NKTS, a South Korean security firm doing business in Iraq, told the AP in Baghdad earlier Tuesday that Kim was still alive and that negotiations for his release continued, with the company president expected to arrive in Baghdad from Seoul by Wednesday.

horrible! and sad!

but that's their way of war and there have been horrible killings and tortures on both sides....

This is so terrible. And the worst is, I don't even see an easy and short way out

that´s the worse and scary part about it keeper

Very sad

Surely that it was a good idea to get rid of Saddam in any case. Someone who was responsible for many of his own people's deaths. Whose sons totured and murdered many others.

In any case? Even if that leaves us with a breeding ground for terrorists only to be ruled once again by yet another dictator?

plus, I think this is only the beginning...

I don't dispute that Saddam was a bad man, but we knew what we had with him. He was a nutter but at least he was harmless in the sense that he was terrible to his own people and he hadn't tried anything for years and I really don't think he would have after his last fiasco with invading Kuwait. In addition have we shown the Iraqi people that we are much better than Saddam? The photos of Abu Gharib prove that. At least with Saddam they had electricity, food and water and like Spunky said the terrosists have a new playing field.. that doesn't seem like a good trade off to me, also not knowing what we will get in return is a bit scary...