BAMAKO - AUTHORITIES in Mali on Wednesday named an Islamist leader they said was behind the execution of a British hostage, thought to be the first by Al-Qaeda affiliates in north Africa.
According to SITE Intelligence, a US-based monitoring group, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) posted an online statement saying it killed Briton Edwin Dyer on May 31 in revenge for the detention of a radical cleric.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the 'barbaric act' and vowed to 'confront terrorism' while Switzerland said it would strive to secure the release of one of its citizens captured alongside Mr Dyer.
Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure sent a condolence message to Mr Brown, speaking of his 'great sadness' at the killing and adding: 'Mali firmly condemns this act.' 'We strongly condemn the brutal and cowardly killing of an innocent man by this terrorist group,' Canada's Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said. 'We urge them to release the remaining hostage.' A Malian official involved in negotiations to free the Briton said the man responsible for his execution was Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, whom he described as 'a violent and brutal Islamist.' The execution marks the first time that Al-Qaeda's north African branch, which emerged out of regional Islamist groups three years ago, has killed a Western hostage, observers say.
Abou Zeid, also known as Abib Hammadou, 43, is listed on United Nations documents as a known Al-Qaeda member.
AQIM was quoted as saying it executed Dyer after 'finding that Britain is unresponsive and does not seem to care for its citizens.' Mr Dyer was one of a group of six Westerners kidnapped by Islamic extremists in the Sahel region - bordering the Sahara desert - in December and January.
He was captured between Mali and Niger while returning from a desert festival celebrating Tuareg culture.
Two Canadian diplomats and two European women tourists were released in April and flown to the Malian capital Bamako, but Mr Dyer and Swiss national Werner Greiner remained in captivity.
Abou Zeid holds Algerian nationality and is described by experts as a former lieutenant to the head of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat - the Algerian-based radical Islamic movement that spawned AQIM. He is alleged to have been behind the kidnapping in 2003 of a group of European tourists eventually freed in northern Mali, and also responsible for the February 2008 kidnapping of two Austrian tourists in Tunisia. The Austrian pair were also freed in northern Mali last year. -- AFP
