WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A second U.S. hostage has been executed by suspected Iraqi insurgents in as many days, al-Jazeera television reported Tuesday.
American Jack Hensley was killed a day after a Web site linked to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi showed the beheading of another American, Eugene Armstrong, who was kidnapped along with Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley last week from their Baghdad home. All three were contractors working for a United Arab Emirates-based firm.
Bigley is presumed to be still alive.
Zarqawi's group, the al-Qaida-linked Tawhid and Jihad said Monday it had executed Armstrong at the expiration of a 48-hour deadline the group had set for the release of Iraqi women prisoners. A video on the group's Web site showed the kidnappers cutting the throat of the blindfolded and crying hostage.
More than 100 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq and some two dozen killed by insurgents opposed to the U.S. and allied presence in the country.
