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Al Qaida group says it kills British hostage in Mali
Al Qaida's North African wing said on Wednesday it had carried out its threat to kill a British hostage it was holding in the Sahara.
- Agencies
- Published: 13:42 June 3, 2009
London: Al Qaida's North African wing said on Wednesday it had carried out its threat to kill a British hostage it was holding in the Sahara.
Britain said it had reason to believe the hostage, Edwin Dyer, had been killed and Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the killing as "a barbaric act of terrorism".
An official source in Algeria told Reuters: "The Briton, according to our information, has been killed by AQIM (Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb) in Mali."
The group had said it would kill the Briton if the British government did not release Abu Qatada, a Jordanian Islamist it is holding in prison.
Dyer was killed on May 31 after a second deadline for the group's demands expired, it said in a statement on a website used by Al Qaida-linked groups.
"The British captive was killed so that he, and with him the British state, may taste a tiny portion of what innocent Muslims taste every day at the hands of the Crusader and Jewish coalition to the east and to the west," the statement said.
"Let Gordon Brown and his aggressor government reap the fruits of their thoughtless policies towards Muslims."
The announcement of the killing came as US President Barack Obama headed to the Middle East hoping to start mending US ties with the Islamic world in a speech that will tackle issues including extremist violence.
The British Foreign Office said Dyer was kidnapped on the border between Niger and Mali in late January, but declined to give any more details about him.
According to The Times newspaper, Dyer was one of a group of European tourists kidnapped after attending the African music "Festival in the Desert" near Timbuktu.
Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for kidnapping two Canadian diplomats and four European tourists in the past five months. The two diplomats and two of the tourists were freed in Mali in April, leaving Dyer and a Swiss citizen in captivity.
Last month, Algerian media reported AQIM was demanding 10 million euros ($14 million) in exchange for Dyer and the Swiss national.
Brown said in a statement: "We have strong reason to believe that a British citizen, Edwin Dyer, has been murdered by an Al Qaida cell in Mali. I utterly condemn this appalling and barbaric act of terrorism."
Brown said the killing reinforced Britain's commitment to confront terrorism.
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