Top al-Qaeda associate Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi is probably responsible for the murder of US civilian Nicholas Berg, who was beheaded in Iraq, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said today.
"The best we know, and I don't know that we know this for sure, but it looks like the perpetrator, the lead perpetrator might have been this fellow Zarqawi," General Richard Myers told a US Senate committee.
"Well before the war in Iraq, he was in Iraq from time to time," said Myers, noting the Jordanian Islamic militant had been linked with al-Qaeda "for a long, long time."
The decapitation of the 26-year-old from Pennsylvania which was shown on a website run by a group linked to the terror network of Osama bin Laden has sparked international revulsion.
Egyptian expert of Islamic movements, Mohammed Rashwan, said today he believed the voice on the video recording of Berg's beheading was that of Zarqawi.
Al-Arabiya, which broadcast most of the tape along with other Arab satellite channels, also said the beheading was carried out by Zarqawi.
{{/usCountry}}Al-Arabiya, which broadcast most of the tape along with other Arab satellite channels, also said the beheading was carried out by Zarqawi.
{{/usCountry}}The channels said the tape on the website was titled "Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American."
The London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat said Zarqawi "personally executed" Berg.
Earlier, a US official said the Central Intelligence Agency was studying the video to see whether Zarqawi was involved.