They gave two reasons: One was Britain’s failure to release Abu Qatada. The other was the standard pursuit of “revenge” against “the Crusader and Jewish coalition.” “Al Qaeda Beheads British Hostage in Mali,” from the Times, June 3:
A British man being held hostage in Mali has been executed, his captors said Wednesday, prompting strong condemnation from Britain of a “barbaric” act.
Edwin Dyer was one of four European tourists kidnapped on Jan. 22 as they returned from a music festival.
Messages posted on Islamic Web sites indicated that they were being held by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a 300-strong Islamist terror group that operates in the desert borderlands of Mali, Algeria, Niger and Mauritania.
Despite intense behind-the-scenes negotiations by British and local officials in Mali, the hostage-takers claimed that they had carried out their threat to kill Dyer. […]
At first it was believed that the hostage-takers were Tuareg rebels, bandits and smugglers who have regularly clashed with Mali’s army, but in February AQIM claimed responsibility.
The two female captives were released on April 22, along with two U.N. diplomats “” Robert Fowler, a peace envoy, and Louis Guay, his aide “” who had been seized in Niger in December.
Four days later the hostage-takers issued an ultimatum, warning they would kill Dyer unless the U.K. freed the radical cleric Abu Qatada within 20 days. He is being held in Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire while he fights extradition to Jordan, where he faces terrorism charges.
On May 15 the deadline was extended by a further two weeks to May 30, and a second demand was issued, this time for a ransom of $142 million in exchange for the two men.
In the end, urgent efforts believed to involve the British and French security services to negotiate the safe release of the Briton failed.
In a statement issued Wednesday AQIM said: “The British captive was killed so that he, and with him the British state, may taste a tiny portion of what innocent Muslims taste every day at the hands of the Crusader and Jewish coalition to the east and to the west.”
Brown said: “This tragedy reinforces our commitment to confront terrorism. It strengthens our determination never to concede to the demands of terrorists, nor to pay ransoms….