No doubt we will be hearing again soon about how this sort of thing is against Islam. We've been down that road before — and [1] here is a fatwa ruling that mutilation is just fine under certain circumstances. This is why I sometimes challenge moderates to be more specific and to challenge directly radical Muslim understandings of Islam: it may be comforting to many Westerners to hear that beheading and mutilation are "un-Islamic," but it does nothing to answer the pro-mutilation Islamic arguments put forward in that fatwa. Until self-proclaimed moderate Muslims actually take on and refute the radicals, all their visions of a noble, peaceful renaissance of Islam will continue to be just whistling in the dark.

From [2] News.com.au, with thanks to JE:

AS hundreds of insurgents who escaped the US onslaught of Fallujah regrouped for further attacks across Iraq, the body of a blonde-haired Caucasian woman with her legs and arms cut off and throat slit was found last night in a street in the battle-torn city. The discovery of the woman wearing a blue dress and with her face shockingly disfigured was made as US marines moved through the south of Fallujah, hunting the remaining diehard rebels after a week of fierce fighting to regain control of the city.

"It is definitely a Caucasian woman with long, blonde hair," said a military official, who cut open a cover that had been over the corpse. Two Western women are known to have been kidnapped in Iraq. Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq, was seized last month and has blonde hair.

Margaret Hassan, 59, director of Care International in Iraq, was also abducted last month and has chestnut-coloured hair.

"It is a female ... missing all four appendages, with a slashed throat and disembowelled, she has been dead for a while but only in this location for a day or two," said Benjamin Finnell, a hospital apprentice with the Navy Corps, who inspected the body. Colonel Mike Shupp said last night the operation to sweep house-to-house through Fallujah should take another four to five days as marine commander Major-General Richard Natonski said more than 1200 rebels had been killed in the week long-offensive.