US man made hoax execution video
A man from San Francisco has admitted staging a hoax video that appeared to show him being beheaded in Iraq.
Benjamin Vanderford from San Francisco said he made the tape months ago as part of his campaign for local office, Associated Press news agency reports.
The video was reported to have been made by militants linked to top al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Zarqawi's group has released footage of hostage beheadings, but doubts were quickly expressed about this footage.
An American, a South Korean and a third man, said to be a Bulgarian, have been shown on videos being beheaded.
Saturday also saw the release of another militant video threatening a Turkish lorry driver with beheading if his company does not stop work in Iraq within 48 hours.
Another Turkish driver, Murat Yuce, was shot in the head three times in a recording claimed by Zarqawi's men.
Stunt?
The dark images of the fake video showed a man dressed in a plain T-shirt, sitting on a chair with his hands behind his back.
"I have been offered for exchange for prisoners here in Iraq," he says.
"We need to leave this country right now. If we don't, everyone is gonna be killed in this way."
After that, a body is shown on the floor with a knife apparently cutting at the neck.
Mr Vanderford, 22, said he had taped the video at a friend's house using fake blood.
He told AP news agency he had begun distributing the video on the internet months ago to draw attention to his campaign to get elected as city supervisor.
"It was part of a stunt, but no one noticed it up until now," Mr Vanderford said.
"I did this for a couple of reasons. One is to attract attention. But, two, is to just make a statement on these type of videos and how easily they can be faked."
Iraqi militants have seized scores of hostages - mainly from countries in the US-led coalition in Iraq - usually demanding the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.
The US has warned against making concessions to the hostage takers.
In a related development, Iraq's interim government has shut down for a month Arab television station al-Jazeera.
Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said this week that the channel encouraged kidnappings by showing images of hostages threatened with executions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3544032.stm