IRAQ: An Islamic insurgent group said yesterday it had killed a US hostage who, if the claim is confirmed, would be the first foreign captive killed in Iraq for four months and the first American in more than a year.
The reported killing came after a suicide bomber killed 30 people in an attack on a crowded bus in central Baghdad, just a week before Iraqis vote in parliamentary elections.
A statement posted on a website often used by insurgents said the Islamic Army in Iraq killed the security consultant, identified as Ronald Schulz, because the US government had not met its demands, which included freeing all Iraqi prisoners.
"War criminal [ US President George W] Bush continues with his arrogance and no one has any value unless they serve his criminal interests, therefore the American security adviser pig at the Housing Ministry has been killed," the statement said.
The statement's authenticity could not be verified and no pictures or video accompanied it.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "I don't have any confirmation or any additional information to provide on that matter." The US embassy in Baghdad said it had no official confirmation of the report.
If true, Mr Schulz (40), an electrician working in Iraq before his kidnap on Tuesday, would be the first foreign hostage killed since late July, when two Algerians were executed by their captors. The last American hostage to die was Jack Hensley, in September 2004.
Meanwhile, the deadline for killing the four peace activists held hostage in Iraq was extended by two days yesterday. It is believed the captors responded to a statement by UK foreign secretary Jack Straw, which made clear British officials in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East were willing to talk.
Mr Straw said: "These four men are all campaigners for peace, dedicated to the helping of others, and we ask for their release . . . If the kidnappers want to get in touch, we want to hear what they have to say."
The four men - Norman Kember (74), a Briton; James Loney (41) and Harmeet Singh Sooden (32), both Canadians; and Tom Fox (54), an American - were seized in Baghdad on November 26th. They are associated with the Christian Peacemaker Team, a Canadian-based international peace group.
A new video which allegedly shows the hostages was released on Al-Jazeera.
Anas al-Tikriti, the Muslim Association of Britain representative who has travelled to Iraq to try to secure Mr Kember's release, said the deadline extension indicated the outlook for the hostages was "much better".
The reported killing of Mr Schulz follows a spate of foreign hostage-taking in Baghdad condemned by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. It came as Iraqi security forces braced for a spike in violence ahead of the election.
The bombing on the Baghdad bus took the death toll from suicide attacks in the Iraqi capital to 66 in just three days, after a relative lull in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, suicide bombers breached security at Baghdad's police academy and killed 36 police officers and cadets.
Police said yesterday's bomber boarded the bus as it was about to leave a bus station for the southern Shia city of Nassiriya and blew himself up.
In August, the same bus station was hit by three car bombs.
Growing frustration over the violence and little improvement in the quality of life for Iraqis loom as the main threats to the ruling United Iraqi Alliance in next Thursday's election.
The alliance, tacitly backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's foremost Shia Muslim cleric, includes Iraq's two most-powerful religious Shia parties.
It swept to power with more than half the seats in parliament in January's interim polls.
"This government has been a loser throughout the year. It didn't do anything for the people. Instead things are even worse now," said Inas, a freelance translator in Baghdad.