Cairo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – An Islamic fundamentalist group tied to al-Qaeda released this morning a videotape showing the execution of an American after he called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. It is not yet clear whether he was a known hostage and where he was captured.

The man on the tape identified himself as Benjamin Vanderford from San Francisco (California). Looking nervous, trembling, sitting on a chair his hands tied behind his back, the American said: "We need to leave this country alone. We need to stop this occupation." He added: "We need to leave this country right now. If we don't, everyone's going to be killed this way." The video then showed a man lying on the ground, a knife cutting at his neck.

The videotape, titled "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American", is interspersed with graphic images of wounded and disfigured adults and children in Iraq, readings from the Qu'ran in the background.

Al-Zarqawi and his group Tawhid-e-Jihad (Unity and Holy War) have claimed responsibility for several attacks against allied forces and executions of hostages in Iraq, including those of 26-year-old US businessman Nicholas Berg (on May 11, 2004), South Korean translator Kim Sun-il (on June 22, 2004) and Bulgarian truck driver Georgi Lazov (on July 3).

Decapitations are increasingly rejected in the Muslim world as "barbaric" and "unislamic". Dubai's Gulf News called Kim Sun-il's decapitation "a despicable act" that seeks to blame others [i.e., US troops] and "shows the paucity of the morality and conviction of the captors".

Dozens of hostages are in the hands of terrorists, mostly from countries tied to the US-led military coalition or countries now dealing with the new Iraqi government.

Iraq's new Prime Minister Yihad Allawi is pursuing a new security strategy open to military collaboration with Muslim countries as proposed by Saudi Arabia but still receptive to Allied troops.

In the last two days, Iraqi, US, UK and Italian troops inflicted heavy casualties on guerrilla groups in Najaf and Nassiriya.