British hostage Mr Kenneth Bigley, facing a death threat from Iraqi kidnappers, appealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his life in a videotape released on Islamist websites last night, writes Lynne O'Donnell in London.
"I need you to help me now, Mr Blair," Mr Bigley said in the video, apparently made by the Tawhid and Jihad group of al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which is holding him hostage.
A spokesman for Mr Blair said: "We are doing everything we can to try to resolve this situation. At the same time, everybody acknowledges how difficult this situation is." It was not clear if the release of the video meant Mr Bigley had been spared for at least another day.
Asked for his reaction to the video, Mr Bigley's brother, Paul, said: "It's good news is it not? The man is alive."
The Bigley family had been preparing for the unthinkable yesterday as the deadline for his decapitation neared amid tangled messages about the release of women prisoners held in Iraqi jails, which Zarqawi had demanded.
Anxiety about his fate intensified after a headless body found on a Baghdad street was identified as that of Mr Jack Hensley, one of two American colleagues kidnapped with him last week and murdered by Zarqawi.
The family endured a day of confusing messages as Iraqi and US officials in Baghdad issued contradictory statements that implied profound differences over responsibility for Iraqi prisoners. They said only two women, both WMD scientists, were held, and not in facilities named by the gang.
Earlier, Mr Kassim Daoud, Iraq's national security adviser, said one of the women would be released, but he later backtracked.
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