- Reuters

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iraqi militant group said it had killed 12 Nepali hostages and showed pictures on an Islamist Web site on Tuesday of one of them being beheaded.

“We have carried out the sentence of God against 12 Nepalis who came from their country to fight the Muslims and to serve the Jews and the Christians…believing in Buddhah as their God,” said the statement by the military committee of the Army of Ansar al-Sunna.

This is the same group that beheaded a “spy” last week.

The recording showed two masked men, one in camouflage, holding down a hostage. One of the men then used a knife to behead the hostage and then hold his head aloft.

The video then showed a group of hostages lying face-down in a dirt pitch being gunned down by a man using an automatic rifle. It then showed bodies splattered with blood and with bullet wounds in the head and back.

“Our brothers, do not feel any mercy or pity for these nasty and spiteful people,” the statement said.

“They have left their homes and their countries and crossed thousands of kilometers to work for the American Crusader forces and to support their war against Islam and the mujahideen.”

The Nepalis were taken hostage earlier this month as they entered Iraq to work as cooks and cleaners for a Jordanian company. The Ansar al-Sunna said it had kidnapped them because they were cooperating with U.S. troops in Iraq.

“America has exploited and used all it has to fight Islam and its people under what it calls the war on terrorism, which is a spiteful Crusader war against Muslims,” the statement said.

“This is why, and in order to thwart the enemies of God, we have carried out this sentence (punishment),” it added.

Chris Short of Our Life has the video.

The video shows the decapitation of one hostage and then the subsequent shooting of the remaining hostages while they are lying on their stomachs. It is not clear if the hostages were alive when they were executed, however it is very probable they were alive and drugged. Ansar Al-Sunna has drugged their hostages before to make them less resistant to their thuggery. The decapitation is not easy to watch so watch the video only if you are prepared.

The Site Institute reports on an Al Qaida training manual where they encourage drugging of hostages to transport them from place to place. It is not inconceivable that the hostages were drugged during their execution as well. Looking back at the video of many of the hostage executions, the majority appear to be either dying or heavily intoxicated by something. The ones that appear to be most sedated have been Muslims, which begs the question of how the terrorists justify drugging Muslims before execution and not other nationalities.

Case in point, Nick Berg was definitely not drugged when he was ruthlessly beheaded. Mohammed Fawzi Abd Aal Metwalli was accused of being a CIA spy and I noted back then that he looked either seriously injured or indeed drugged. Rusty Shackleford notes that it is common practice in Chechnya to drug the victims of beheadings therefore it is probably that this tactic is being used in Iraq as well.

Hat tip: Backcountry Conservative

Update:
- Associated Press

Such comments contrasted with muted reaction in the region Tuesday when a grisly video surfaced on a militant Muslim Web site showing the purported killing of 12 Nepalese workers kidnapped in Iraq. The group that claimed responsibility had accused the Nepalese of working for the U.S. military. One Iraqi cleric told Al-Jazeera TV that their deaths, while regrettable, were understandable because “their work is military work.”

This is absolutely appalling. Not only does this statement reflect an attitude where some lives are worth less than others, but it condones the brutal execution of those who are simply trying to make a living. None of the hostages from Napal ever fired a weapon at an Iraqi and the terrorist taking of an un-connected individual rather than face the Iraqi Army or the United States military is cowardly to its core.

This is the same type of person who expressed huge outrage at the Abu Ghraib prison torture, and rightly so by the way, yet looks the other way when people are killed bound and gagged without the ability to defend theirself. Creating a naked pyramid and beheading someone while alive or drugged is not the same and this Iraqi cleric needs to read the good book to realize the differences in such acts.

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