Video shows beheading of American captive in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An al Qaeda-linked Web site posted video Tuesday of a man who identified himself as an American and then was beheaded.

His captors said the United States refused to exchange him for prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison.

The captors also issued a direct statement to President Bush: "The worst is coming and, God willing, the tough days are still to come. You and your soldiers will regret the day that you touched the ground of Iraq."

In the video, a man identifies himself as Nicholas Berg, 26, of Pennsylvania and is shown sitting in an orange jumpsuit in front of five armed, hooded men.

The one standing directly behind the American reads a statement identifying himself, and then Berg is pushed to the floor.

Berg is heard screaming as his throat is cut. One of the captors then holds up his severed head.

"For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage for some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib and they refused," the hooded man standing behind the American said just before the killing.

"Coffins will be arriving to you one after the other, slaughtered just like this."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters, "this shows the true nature of the enemies of freedom. They have no regard for the lives of innocent men, women and children."

At the Pentagon, officials confirmed that a body found in Iraq by an Army patrol is the person shown in the beheading video. Earlier, the State Department had identified the body as that of Berg.

The Web site said the killing had been carried out by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of an Islamist terrorist group that has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on coalition forces in Iraq.

The voice on the tape could not be verified as that of al-Zarqawi.

The Web site also published the text of the statement attributed to al-Zarqawi.

In the statement, the captors refer to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. military personnel, saying the "picture of dishonor and the news of Satanic assault on the people of Islamic men and women" will not be tolerated.

"Where is the compassion, where is the anger for God's religion, and where is the protection for Muslims' pride in the crusaders' jails?" the man says.

"We tell you the pride of all Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and other jails is worth blood and souls."

Berg was not a soldier or a civilian employee of the Pentagon, the State Department said.

Outside the family home Tuesday in suburban Philadelphia, Bruce Hauser, a neighbor and family spokesman, said Berg owned a company that cleaned and repaired communications towers in Iraq.

Hauser said Berg's family learned about his death Monday and is devastated by the news. The family has asked the State Department to release the body as soon as possible, he said.

Berg's family told The Associated Press that they knew he had been decapitated but weren't aware of the details.

CNN More information