DUBAI, Oct 12 (AFP) - An Al-Qaeda-linked group posted a video on the Internet on Tuesday showing the beheading of a Shiite Iraqi man it accused of spying for US forces in Iraq.
A statement posted on the group's website named the man as Ala al-Maliki and described him as "a rejectionist (a term used to refer to Shiite Muslims) who belonged to the Sadr movement (of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr)".
The video from the military wing of the Army of Ansar Al-Sunna showed Maliki being beheaded after he "confessed" to spying for American forces in Iraq.
The statement said Maliki "joined US army after the fall of Baghdad (in April 2003) and used to collect arms and ammunition to hand it to the US crusader forces, in order to create a shortage (of weapons) in the market."
Maliki, whose face bore apparent signs of torture, was wearing a badge saying "US-sponsored Citizens' Claims Office", which the statement claimed Maliki used to kill Sunni people.
"He had a cellar in his office for that purpose, and he liquidated several Sunnis," it said. "He confessed that there is... a collaboration between US forces and the Sadr movement."
The statement from Al-Sunna, which is linked to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organisation, warned that there was "a conspiracy against Sunni (Muslims)."
Les than 24 hours earlier, another two men identified as Turkish contractor and an Iraqi Kurdish translator were shown being decapitated, also apparently by Ansar Al-Sunna, after "confessing" that they worked for US forces in Iraq.
It warned that anyone who worked with American forces would meet the same fate as the two victims.
The same group posted a video on its website on October 2 also showing an Iraqi man being beheaded after "confessing" he was a contractor with US forces.
It also killed 12 Nepalese workers in late August after taking them hostage.
Several other foreigners have also been beheaded after they were abducted by Islamic militant groups in Iraq in the past few months.