U.S. hostage killed, Iraq militant group says

‘God only knows’
Ed Schulz said both he and his mother, Gladys, identified his brother on the video, and said the FBI had asked family members to give reporters only limited information.

“I don't want to get my brother killed,” Ed Schulz said. “But the fact that he has blond hair and blue eyes might get him killed. God only knows with these people.”

He said his brother’s last known location was Amman, Jordan.

Liz Colton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said U.S. authorities were investigating the Al-Jazeera report.

Iraq has seen a sudden surge of kidnappings of Westerners in the past month after a relative lull. The last time insurgents announced the killing of American hostages was Sept. 21, 2004, when al-Qaida in Iraq said it had killed Jack Hensley, a civil engineer from Marietta, Ga., and Eugene “Jack” Armstrong, formerly of Hillsdale, Mich. They had been abducted days before along with a British engineer Kenneth Bigley, who was also killed.

Group has loose ties with al-Qaida
The Islamic Army of Iraq, the group claiming responsibility for Schulz’s kidnapping, is loosely associated with al-Qaida in Iraq, NBC News reported Thursday.

One of the most active insurgent groups in the country, the group is most infamously known for killing four American contractors at a bridge in Fallujah in March of 2004. The insurgents hung the Americans’ bodies from the bridge after killing them.

In 2004, the group also launched an assasination attempt against Iraqi Vice President Ahmed Chalabi, killing five of his bodyguards.

Another insurgent group, the Swords of Righteousness, has set a Saturday deadline, threatening to kill four Christian humanitarian workers abducted two weeks ago, including an American, two Canadians and a Briton. A French aid worker and a German citizen are also currently being held by kidnappers.

Ed Schulz said his brother worked for several companies, and that it was not unusual that he had not heard from him for several weeks.

Ronald Schulz graduated from high school in Jamestown, and served in the Marine Corps from 1984 to 1991, Ed Schulz said.

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