Kidnapped American peace worker found shot dead in Baghdad

Iraq: Tom Fox, one of four Christian peace activists kidnapped in Baghdad last November by a previously unknown group calling itself the Sword of Righteousness Brigades, was found shot dead at the weekend.

His beaten and bound body, with shots to the head and chest, was found in the affluent Mansour quarter where most foreign missions used to be located.

Residents discovered the corpse on Friday and notified the local police who advised the US military.

There is no news on the fate or whereabouts of the other three men, Canadians James Loney (41) and Harmeet Singh Sooden (32), and Briton Norman Kember (74).

They were last seen in a video dated February 28th which was broadcast on an Arab satellite channel. Mr Fox (54) did not appear in the video clip, giving rise to concern about his welfare.

Before going to Baghdad on a four-month rotation, each of the men signed a statement rejecting kidnapping and hostage-taking as well as the use of force to rescue them if they were taken.

A US citizen and a Quaker from Virginia, Mr Fox was a member of the ecumenical Christian Peacemakers Teams based in Toronto and Chicago. This Gandhian movement, founded by Menonites, Brethren and Quakers, sends teams of activists to trouble spots to conciliate warring communities and carry out tasks local people cannot perform. Christians from other denominations also take part. Peacemaker teams operating in the Middle East are based in Iraq and the occupied West Bank.

Before going to Iraq, Mr Fox served in the West Bank, where he joined Palestinians demonstrating against Israel's policies. After the kidnapping, Palestinian colleagues, clerics and political figures staged protests and sent messages to Iraq calling for the men's release.

Shawka Shamaha, the Palestinian mayor of the town of Jayyus, said: "Tom used to sit in front of the [ Israeli] bulldozers to block them. Hearing news that he was killed makes me very sad."

Muslim clerics and laymen in the US and Canada have also condemned the men's seizure while Muslim figures from Britain have undertaken missions to Iraq to work for their release.

The main task assumed by the Baghdad team since the war is tracing and working for the release of Iraqis who have disappeared into the US prison system.

The team also escorts shipments of medicines to clinics and hospitals and has formed and trained two Muslim Peacemaker teams, one in Najaf and the other in Kerbala. In January 2004, four months before the Abu Ghraib scandal hit the headlines, the Peacemakers released a report on the mistreatment and torture of Iraqis held in US prisons.

At least 430 foreigners, including 41 US nationals, have been taken hostage in Iraq since the 2003 US occupation; 14 are still being held while 41 have been murdered.

The killing of Mr Fox - like that of Margaret Hassan, the Irish-born head of Care in Iraq who was shot to death in November 2004 - came as a great shock to Iraqis.

They have offered condolences to team members in Baghdad who remain in the country and continue their work. Iraqis have also staged peaceful protests against the kidnapping.