Date Posted: Thursday, May 13, 2004

The beheading of an American has caused disgust and revulsion from around the world.

BAGHDAD, May 13 (MASNET & News Agencies) - The international community reacted with disgust at an American's beheading in Iraq as shown on an al-Qaeda-linked website, as residents of Baghdad showed mixed reactions.

In a grainy video on an extremist website, Nick Berg, a businessman from Pennsylvania who had been missing in Iraq since mid-April, was shown being decapitated with a large knife by a group of masked men who claimed their action was in revenge for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The video of Berg's killing was entitled "Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American", referring to a wanted Jordanian whom the United States accuses of masterminding suicide attacks in Iraq.

After the killing, the men held up the head up to the camera. Berg's remains were found Saturday by U.S. troops along a road near Baghdad.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman said, "This was a truly barbaric act and there is no justification for this kind of act in a civilized world."

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said, "There's no excuse for what those Americans have been doing in those prisons but there's no doubt that some of the people they're dealing with are barbaric."

The "depraved" beheading will not force Australian troops out of Iraq, Australia's Prime Minister John Howard said.

Japan called for the swift arrest of those who carried out the "merciless" killing. "It was an unforgivable act and we strongly condemn it," foreign ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima told AFP.

The two leading Arab satellite channels, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, Wednesday continued broadcasting harrowing images from the video showing Berg, but only before his beheading.

The execution triggered condemnation and excuses on the streets of Baghdad on Wednesday.

"From what we have seen, it was a natural reaction to the human rights violations at Abu Ghraib. What the Americans are doing now is terrible," said one woman, a 45-year-old dentist.

But house painter Ali Abu Nabi, 29, said: "He was a human being and he came to Iraq on a mission to help Iraqis."

Most Baghdad residents condemned Berg’s beheading, as many added that his death was just the latest atrocity in a cycle of violence that is driving them to despair, reports Reuters news agency.

"The Americans killed hundreds in Falluja in retaliation for the mutilation of the four Americans and now those people are killing an American in retaliation for the torture of prisoners," said Arkan Mohammad, a cleric at Baghdad University.

"Someone has to do something to stop the cycle of violence from going on and on."

Even in the Baghdad Sunni Muslim stronghold of Adhamiya, where there is fierce opposition to the occupation, many residents were appalled by the decapitation of Berg, the news agency reports.

"We denounce this act. No one can accept the killing of another human being in this horrible way," said Yassir Saleh, a 30-year-old barber. But he too pointed to a tide of violence that has swept the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

"Sometimes I really can't understand the logic of what is happening, all the violence that I could have never imagined would take place in my country," he said.

Many Iraqis say they oppose the U.S.-led occupation but also despise insurgents whose suicide attacks, mortar strikes and bomb blasts have killed far more Iraqis than Americans, reports Reuters.

Issa al-Khalidi, a 65-year-old pensioner sitting in one of the oldest coffeehouses in Adhamiya, also condemned the killing, but looked around nervously as he did.

"It's a brutal, inhuman act. As Muslims our religion prohibits us from committing such acts," he said.

"People with their own interpretations of Islam are coming to this country and killing left and right, and the Americans are just providing them with the pretext to do so."

But some of the city's poorer residents said they supported the killing, arguing it was acceptable retribution for the abuses the U.S. military had committed in Iraq, reports Reuters.

"This is the price they have to pay for what they have done," said 33-year-old Omar Khateb, a laborer. "It was done according to Islamic Sharia, and the Americans should know that there is a price they will pay for the atrocities they commit."

The White House vowed the United States would hunt down those who carried out Berg’s beheading.

"It shows the true nature of the enemies of freedom," spokesman Scott McClellan said. "They have no regard for the lives of innocent men, women and children. We will pursue those who are responsible and bring them to justice."

U.S. lawmakers demanded the Arab world condemn the killing of the American civilian as strongly as they had condemned abuse of prisoners by U.S. troops at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail.

"I am eagerly awaiting public apologies and condemnation from leaders in the Arab world expressing their own personal outrage at the barbaric murder of Nick Berg, an innocent civilian," said Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado.