British Hostage Pleads For His Life Amid Reports Italians Killed In Iraq

BAGHDAD, Sept 23 (AFP) - Kidnappers in Iraq claimed early Thursday to have killed two Italian aid workers being held hostage, as fears grew for a British hostage after a video on an Islamist website showed him pleading for his life.
At least 20 Iraqis were killed and more than 200 wounded in fresh violence across Baghdad Wednesday, as US troops battled Shiite militiamen and a suicide car bomb targeted recruits for the Iraqi national guard.
In northern Iraq, a US soldier was killed in an attack on a patrol in the city of Mosul, while another American soldier died in a roadside bomb attack in Tikrit, hometown of ousted president Saddam Hussein, the US military said.
In Rome, sources close to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told the ANSA news agency the government had no information which could confirm the execution of the two Italian women held hostage in Iraq.
The same sources counseled caution in handling the information posted on an Islamist website.
The "Jihad Organization" earlier had claimed the two women, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta had been "slaughtered." The claim could not be immediately verified.
Both of them were abducted two weeks ago in Baghdad, along with two Iraqi colleagues, and an Islamist group subsequently demanded that Italy withdraw its 3,000 troops stationed in Iraq. Italy has refused the captors' demands.
Meanwhile, time was running out for Kenneth Bigley, a British engineer kidnapped by Islamist militants headed by Jordanian Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. Bigley's two US colleagues had their heads hacked off earlier this week.
A video posted on an Islamist website and allegedly recorded by Zarqawi's group showed what it said was Bigley pleading to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to save his life.
In the video, which could not be authenticated, the presumed hostage, whose face is blurred, urges Blair to release Iraqi women prisoners, as his captors are demanding.
"I need you (Blair) to be compassionate as you always said you were ... I don't want to die ... Please, please release the female prisoners that are held in Iraqi prisons," he said, breaking into tears.
Later, the hostage's son, Craig Bigley, read a message to his captors.
"Thank you for letting Ken make his appeal. All of the family are very grateful to you for his message," he said. "We have heard what you say, and want to continue listening to you. You have proved to the world that you are committed and determined.
"Be merciful as we know you can be. Release Ken back to his wife and family. We ask you as a family to be all merciful."
But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw conceded there was little hope of obtaining Bigley's release, saying London would stand firm on its refusal to negotiate with terrorists.
"We continue to do everything we can to secure Kenneth Bigley's safe release, but it would be idle to pretend that there's a great deal of hope," Straw told BBC radio.
"We cannot get into a situation, and I believe the family understands this, where we start bargaining with terrorists and kidnappers."
A video posted on an Islamist website showed Jack Hensley being decapitated by a hooded gunman and his head placed on his back. He was the second of two American hostages captured with Bigley to be killed by Zarqawi's Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group.
The US embassy in Baghdad had earlier said it received his body.
Bigley's chances of escaping the same fate as the Americans appeared slim after the US embassy and the Iraqi government denied that the release of an Iraqi woman held by the coalition was imminent.
Amid conflicting reports, the Iraqi justice ministry had said earlier that one of two women biologists in coalition hands may be freed, offering a glimmer of hope to Bigley's family.
In Latrobe, Pennsylvania, President George W. Bush condemned the beheadings, vowing they would not derails US-led efforts there.
"These terrorists will not defeat our military. They cannot defeat our military. The only thing they can do is behead people and try to shake our will," Bush told supporters at a campaign rally here.
"We can't stand the beheadings but we are not going to let thugs keep us from doing our duty.
"They're trying to convince the Iraqis freedom is not worth it. They're trying to convince the American people that we will not succeed. That's the only weapon they have."
Bush was to welcome Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to the White House to help spread his election-year message that the war to oust Saddam Hussein was worth it.
Earlier, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States will never negotiate with terrorists, flatly ruling out any policy change in the wake of the beheading of the US hostages.
On the military front, the US push during which 13 people were killed and 149 wounded in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City in Baghdad was described by an official from firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's office as the "most devastating" offensive there since Saddam's fall.
US military officials claimed they had killed up to 25 fighters from Sadr's Mehdi Army and that the raid was aimed at stabilising the area and allowing reconstruction work to begin in earnest.
The next two weeks are likely to be decisive in the fight against militants and efforts to disarm militiamen and prepare the ground for elections in January 2005, Iraq's national security adviser said.
"Our vision is that in a matter of a couple of weeks we can reduce the presence of terrorists," Kassem Daoud said, promising more large-scale Iraqi-US operations on the ground.
The Baghdad car bomb which ripped through men lined up to join the Iraqi national guard was the latest in a long list of attacks against Iraqi security forces and a recent surge of attacks in the capital.
Fresh fighting also erupted in the city's Sunni stronghold of Haifa Street, which is a mixture of smart high-rises and impoverished alleyways harboring a loose alliance of Saddam loyalists and Islamic insurgents.