Eugene Armstrong

Eugene Armstrong, a construction contractor from Michigan, was kidnapped and held hostage by Muslim terrorists in Iraq in September, 2004. Armstrong was eventually beheaded and a video of the murder was distributed on the Internet. He and two others were taken from an upscale neighborhood in Baghdad by a group headed by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, leader of the Tawhid and Jihad terrorist organization, which is associated with Al Qaeda. Spokesmen for the organization had said that they would murder all three men if the U.S. did not release "Iraqi women" they claimed were being held by the U.S. at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run Iraqi prisons. U.S. authorities said they only have two women in their custody in Iraq -- both of them scientists allegedly involved in former leader Saddam Hussein's weapons program.

One of the other two men abducted, Jack Hensley, was reportedly beheaded a few days later. The third hostage, a British engineer named Kenneth Bigley, was beheaded in October, 2004. All three victims were employees of a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based building company GSCS Gulf which has contracts with US army bases.

Tawhid and Jihad claims to have killed several hostages in Iraq, the first one being Nicholas Berg, a Jewish businessman who was beheaded in May, 2004.

Last updated: October 10, 2004.

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Foreign hostages in Iraq. (Discuss)

Olin Eugene Armstrong, Jr. (5 June 1953 - 20 September 2004) also known by his nickname "Jack", grew up in the south-central Michigan community of Hillsdale, where he lived until 1990.

Work in Iraq

Armstrong was an American contractor working in Iraq for the construction firm Gulf Energy Company of the United Arab Emirates.

Capture and murder

After being taken hostage, Armstrong was beheaded on 20 September 2004 by the Tawhid and Jihad militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is believed to have personally beheaded Armstrong. The following day, the group beheaded fellow American Jack Hensley, and threatened to kill their third hostage, Briton Kenneth Bigley (who was also later beheaded), unless the United States met their demands to free all women prisoners in Iraqi jails.

It took several minutes for Eugene Armstrong to be beheaded due to the use by his captors of a small knife. On holding up Armstrong's head to the camera, the captors yelled "Allah Akbar".

When footage of Armstrong's murder was posted on the internet, the host for the Tawhid and Jihad website, HostingAnime, defended its content citing "free speech".

See also

• Daniel Pearl
• Nick Berg
• Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.
• Kim Sun-il
• Jack Hensley
• Kenneth Bigley
• 2003 invasion of Iraq
• Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse
• Human rights situation in post-Saddam Iraq

Sources

• FACTBOX-Prominent kidnappings of foreigners in Iraq Accessed Sept. 5, 2007.

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