NEWS: Freed Pakistani Says He Watched 3 Beheadings, page 1

Amjad Hafeez a former Pakistani hostage held by captors in Iraq was freed last week and is now talking. Today his horrific account of watching his captors behead other hostages is being reported. He claims he watched as three other hostages were beheaded and was told that two of them were Americans...

ABCNEWS.com Full Article

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani man freed from captivity in Iraq last week said Saturday he saw his captors behead three hostages -- two Americans and an Iraqi -- while he was being held.

His account could not be independently confirmed and there have been no recent reports of two Americans and an Iraqi being abducted. Previously, militants have been quick to announce the taking of hostages, usually releasing videotapes showing armed, masked men standing threateningly over the captives.

Amjad Hafeez, a driver working for a U.S. contractor, was taken hostage on June 25 as he returned from work north of Baghdad. He was blindfolded and taken to a nearby house. Four days into his captivity, Hafeez said he was able to see one of his captors cut the heads off three other hostages. "The faces of all three were covered with white cloths," Hafeez told Reuters, a day after returning to Pakistan following his July 2 release.

"One of them was crying 'please, please' ... but they beheaded him. The two others did not speak," he said by telephone from Rawalpindi..

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According to Amjad Hafeez's account the kidnappers shouted "Allah Akbar" three times before each of the beheadings, and that the kidnappers told him two of the hostages were American.

Currently known being held in Iraq are two Bulgarians and a Filipino, all drivers working in Iraq, under the threat of beheading them if their captors demands are not met.

In the past two hostages have been beheaded in Iraq -- Nicholas Berg, an American who was looking for contracting work, and a South Korean translator, Kim Sun-il

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It seems possible that the Philippines has negotiated the release of one of their own and is going to remove troops from Iraq...

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[edit on 10-7-2004 by UM_Gazz]