No word on other hostages as Egyptian killed in Iraq

No word on other hostages as Egyptian killed in Iraq
By Gideon Long
Sat Dec 10, 2005 05:20 PM GMT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kidnappers killed an Egyptian working for the U.S. military in Iraq as a deadline loomed on Saturday for the execution of four Western peace workers, held under threat of death since they were seized two weeks ago.

The dead Egyptian had worked as a translator in Saddam's home town of Tikrit before he was taken hostage this week.

Police said the man's body was found near a village north of Tikrit with his identity papers in his pocket. Egyptian news agency MENA had earlier named him as 46-year-old Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Hilali.

He was the eighth foreigner abducted in Iraq since late November. One other, a U.S. security contractor, has been killed, according to the Islamist group which seized him.

However, their claim, made in an Internet statement on Thursday, has yet to be independently verified.

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