British Hostage Kenneth Bigley in Iraq fought, escaped and about to be free before he was beheaded!
Balaji Reddy, Special Correspondent
October 10, 2004

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According to some insurgent sources, British hostage Kenneth Bigley made a heroic attempt to escape from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. According to some sources in Iraq the UK citizen and a private contractor was able to convince one of his captors to help him escape from the farm house near the town of Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad. When Abu Musab al-Zarqawi found out that the hostage was missing, he took his militia and went hunting for him in the farmland. Kenneth Bigley tried his best to escape and he was free for forty five minutes. Al-Queda and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for the first time was in panic because an escape would have exposed the al-Zarqawi network and operations completely. Iraqi and US Army was in search of him. When al-Zarqawi and his gang spotted him, they had a serious fight. Bigley fought very hard against a gang of people. 

Bigley was beheaded in Latifiya soon after his recapture on Thursday afternoon, one source said, adding: "He never made it to the main street."

The fate of his accomplice was not immediately known. Bigley had been held by the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Jordanian Islamist militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

British and Iraqi officials have declined comment on an earlier report from a Western security source that Bigley was killed after trying to escape with help from an insider, but they have denied that he died after a failed rescue attempt.

On Friday a Reuters journalist saw a video in Baghdad in which the 62-year-old construction engineer made a final despairing plea for his life before militants suspected of fostering ties to al Qaeda severed his head with a knife.

According to some sources, the British authorities were in secret contacts with the captors for Bigley’s release. They were tracking the captors and may have launched a secret attempt to rescue the hostage which probably failed.

This is the first instance where a hostage really fought and attempted to escape.

Meanwhile, Bigley's hometown of Liverpool lowered flags to half-mast and held a two-minute silence on Saturday.

The city ground to a halt at the stroke of midday to remember the man whose heart-rending pleas for help so touched Britons.