An Islamic website tonight claimed an al Qaeda related group executed a second American hostage in Iraq , an announcement that came as the group's 24-hour deadline for meeting its demands ran out.
A militant group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has killed an American captive in Iraq after the lapse of a 24-hour deadline tonight, a statement posted on the Internet and an Arabic channel said.
The Qatar-based Al Jazeera said a statement announcing the killing of American Jack Hensley (48) by the Tawhid and Jihad group was posted on the Internet.
It gave no further details. On an Islamist site, a contributor who has in the past posted messages in the name of Tawhid and Jihad said the group would soon post pictures of the "slaughter".
"The sons of our nation have slit the throat of the second American hostage after the deadline passed and we will provide you with pictures soon," said the contributor, who goes by the pseudonym Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi.
Mr Hensley's death comes a day after the group beheaded American Mr Eugene Armstrong (52) who was also kidnapped along with Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley (62) in Baghdad last week.
There was no word on Mr Bigley's fate. In Washington, a US State Department official said: "We take these reports seriously but I don't think we have a body yet." Tawhid and Jihad had threatened to kill the hostages unless women prisoners were freed from Iraqi jails.
The US military says no women are being held in the two prisons specified, but that two are in US custody and are accused of working on ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's weapons programme. Zarqawi's group has said it was responsible for most of the bloodiest suicide bombings in Iraq since the fall of Saddam.
It has beheaded several hostages, including US telecoms engineer Nicholas Berg in May and South Korean driver Kim Sun-il in June. The United States has offered $25 million for information leading to Zarqawi's capture.
Earlier the family of a British hostage threatened with execution in Iraq made an appeal to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet the demands of his kidnappers and save his life.
Mr Bigley's son, Craig, made a direct appeal to Mr Blair, saying he was the only person who could save his father.
"I ask Tony Blair personally to consider the amount of bloodshed already suffered," he said in a statement broadcast on BBC News 24television.
"Only you can save him now. You have children and you will understand how I feel at this time. Please meet the demands and release my father," he said.
In the video of Mr Armstrong's murder, the hostage-takers said they had killed him because US authorities had failed to free women prisoners in Iraqi jails.
They gave another 24 hours for the United States to do so, or the other two hostages would be killed.
Mr Bigley's brother, Philip, said: "We feel absolutely helpless. We do not have the power to save Ken's life. The death of the American hostage has proved to us that if nothing is done then the two remaining captives will die by the most horrific means. The only person we can now beg to help us is the prime minister."