DUBAI (AFP) – A group linked to suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi claimed yesterday night to have beheaded a US hostage in Iraq, the second in two days, according to a statement attributed to it on an Islamist website.

“The valiant men of the nation have cut the throat of the second American hostage following the expiration of the fixed deadline,” said the statement, published on www.ansarnet.ws/vb/showthread.php?t15302.

The statement said a video of the decapitation would follow soon.

It was apparently referring to Jack Hensley, who was abducted along with fellow American Eugene “Jack” Armstrong and Briton Kenneth Bigley from their Baghdad home last Thursday.

Grisly footage of Armstrong’s killing was posted on an Islamist website Monday evening in the name of Zarqawi’s Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group.

The abductors had threatened to kill all three hostages if Iraqi women prisoners in coalition jails were not freed.