Iraqi militants kill US soldier hostage
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-29 07:37

Iraqi militants killed an American soldier they have held hostage for nearly three months, saying the killing was because the U.S. government did not change its policy in Iraq, Al-Jazeera television reported Tuesday.

News of the killing of Spc. Keith M. Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, came hours after the United States returned sovereignty in Iraq to an interim government. The report did not say when Maupin was killed.

A video grab image taken from a tape obtained by Al Jazeera television shows an unidentified man, believed to be a U.S. soldier. Al Jazeera television aired the video tape June 28, 2004 showing what militants said was the execution of a U.S. soldier captured in Iraq in April. The U.S. Army has told the family of a soldier taken hostage in Iraq in April about the existence of a videotape that may show an execution, but has not confirmed that he has been killed, defense officials said on Monday. [Reuters]

Maupin was captured during an ambush on a convoy west of Baghdad on April 9.

The Arab satellite station aired video showing a blindfolded man sitting on the ground. Al-Jazeera said that in the next scene, gunmen shoot the man in the back of the head, in front of a hole dug in the ground. It did not show the killing.

Maj. Willie Harris, public affairs spokesman for the Army's 88th Regional Readiness Command, said the videotape is being analyzed by the Department of Defense.

"There is no confirmation at this time, that the tape contains footage of Matt Maupin or any other Army soldier," he said, adding that the Maupin family was briefed "as to the existence of a videotape."

Al-Jazeera said a statement was issued with the video in the name of a group calling itself "The Sharp Sword against the Enemies of God and His Prophet." In the statement, the militants said they killed the soldier because the United States did not change its policies in Iraq and to avenge "martyrs" in iraq, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

A video grab image taken from Al Jazeera television on April 16, 2004 shows a U.S. soldier who identified himself as Keith Matthew Maupin. Al Jazeera television aired a video tape June 28, 2004 showing what militants said was the execution of a U.S. soldier captured in Iraq in April. The U.S. Army has told the family of a soldier taken hostage in Iraq in April about the existence of a videotape that may show an execution, but has not confirmed that he has been killed, defense officials said on Monday. A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Army notified the family of Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin, 20, "that there's a rumor Al Jazeera or an Arab network may have a tape of an execution, but we do not know if it's their son or not." [Reuters]

Maupin was among nine Americans, seven of them contractors, who disappeared after the April 9 attack.

The bodies of four civilian employees of Kellogg Brown & Root - a subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton - were later found in a shallow grave near the site of the attack. The body of Sgt. Elmer Krause, of Greensboro, N.C. was later found.

One civilian driver, Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss, was kidnapped but escaped from his captors nearly a month later. The others are missing.

Maupin was promoted in absentia on May 1 from private first class to the rank of specialist, said Maj. Mark Magalski, a spokesman for the 633rd QM Ballation, based in Cincinnati.

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