Nick Berg beheaded on video, Iraq
Nicholas Berg, 26, was a private businessman from Pennsylvania who had gone to Iraq looking for contracts. His body was found by the side of a road near Baghdad. On 11 May 2004 an al-Qaeda-related website posted a video titled "Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American". The ABC reported that one of five hooded men read a statement denouncing the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison, and that Berg was then beheaded. The ABC also reported it remained unclear whether Zarqawi personally carried out the killing.
US President George W Bush said there was no justification for the beheading, or for releasing the footage on the internet (ABC).
Australian angle: Australia had troops in Iraq at the time. No Australian government statement on Berg's killing was found in ABC reporting, which covered it as overseas news. Later that year Foreign Minister Alexander Downer called the beheading of British hostage Ken Bigley "barbaric" (ABC, 9 October 2004).
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