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“I am deeply saddened by the news of the killing of Kenneth Bigley”, declared the Catholic Primate of England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, archbishop of Westminster, commenting on the execution of the British hostage Kenneth Bigley, kidnapped in Iraq by Islamic terrorists of the Tawhid Wal Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War) group. “At this terrible time said Cardinal O’Connor I remember Bigley in my prayers. My thoughts go to his family, to his friends and to the whole community. I also pray that an end may be put to this spiral of violence in Iraq that has caused so many victims”. Bigley, 62 years old, an engineer for the Gulf Service Company, had been kidnapped on 16 September together with two American colleagues, Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong. Claiming responsibility for their seizure, the terrorists had demanded the liberation within 48 hours of all women being detained in Iraq in exchange for the hostages. On 20 September an Internet site had shown a video of the decapitation of Armstrong; 24 hours later, a second video was transmitted with the execution of Hensley. Bigley had been last shown alive on 29 September: in a video transmitted by Al Jazeera, he was shown enclosed in a kind of cage.
