Hostage 'hunted house by house'

By KIM SENGUPTA AND FRANCIS ELLIOTT


A dramatic picture emerged yesterday of the desperate last hours of Ken Bigley, who evaded his captors only to be hunted down and beheaded.

The Liverpool engineer may have spent as much as a night on the run before being recaptured by militants, according to extraordinary eyewitness accounts from the town where he was held.

Britain's Foreign Office refused to discuss reports of Bigley's escape. But Iraqi and United States officials separately confirmed that the hostage had briefly evaded his captors.

The escape led his abductors, Jordanian born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, to mount a frantic house-to-house search, according to locals in Latifiya, a town southwest of Baghdad. Armed fighters also set up road-blocks as they scoured the town for their victim.

Bigley was eventually cornered, reportedly armed with a gun and in a change of clothing, in desolate farmland. There were conflicting reports about how long he had been free from his killers. Some suggested he had managed to evade capture for a night. Other "rebel sources" said it was only half an hour.

The decision to kill him was made soon after he was taken back to his makeshift prison and carried out quickly, say sources claiming to know the kidnappers. A helper, believed to be one of the 10-strong gang who seized him, was also captured and shot dead.

The gang may have been panicked into the beheading amid fears that coalition forces were closing in on their secret location.

The militants took Bigley hostage, along with two US colleagues, in Baghdad on September 16. The Americans were beheaded the following week but the Briton's fate hung in the balance for weeks.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair telephoned the Bigley family yesterday for the first time since his murder. Officials refused to disclose the content of the conversation.

In recent days, there appeared to be a measure of optimism. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, confirmed that the Government had exchanged messages with the gang through an intermediary whose identity diplomats have pledged never to reveal.

Although a senior British source insisted that there was never enough intelligence to mount an operation against the kidnappers, further details emerged yesterday of a major operation in Latifiya five days ago.

In the first comprehensive sounding taken since the death, the YouGov poll in the Mail on Sunday showed 36 per cent of voters wanted Blair to step down. But 65 per cent said he was not to blame for Bigley's beheading, while 59 per cent believed the Government had done everything it could to secure his release.

Despite Blair's plummeting trust ratings, all polls still point to Labour being the comfortable winner of the next election as the opposition Conservatives have failed to capitalise on his woes.

The latest poll in the Sunday Telegraph, taken after the Conservatives' annual party conference, showed the Tories garnering just 30 per cent of support - nine points behind Labour.

Accounts of Bigley's frantic escape bid came as the hostage's home city of Liverpool fell silent in a two-minute tribute yesterday.

In her first full statement since his death, Bigley's Thai-born wife, Sombat, 35, said: "No words can express the agony I feel for the loss of my husband, Ken.

"He was a good man and a loving, caring husband. He went to Iraq to help the Iraqi people."

A mass in his honour was said at Liverpool's Catholic cathedral and books of condolence have been opened. The two-minute silence was observed at noon local time in churches, cathedrals, businesses and homes, and by around 200 people gathered at the Town Hall.

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq