While the US, Britain and Italy, whose citizens have been taken hostage, have refused to concede demands of hostage-takers, militant groups have sent out clear signals that they, too, mean business. Two American contractors, Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, and a British engineer, Ken Bigley, were abducted from Baghdad, with their kidnappers demanding the release of Iraqi women prisoners. Early this week, Hensley and Armstrong were beheaded, and Bigley's fate is uncertain. On Thursday, a group calling itself Jihad Organization claimed on an Islamist website that it had "slaughtered" two Italian aid workers taken hostage more than two weeks ago. The claim is yet to be confirmed. Britain and Italy are part of the US-led coalition in Iraq and have refused to pull out their troops deployed there.
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