A headless corpse in an orange jumpsuit has been found by Iraqi police in the Tigris River and handed over to U.S. forces, but it has not yet been identified, a U.S. military spokeswoman said Thursday.
She said it was not known whether the body was that of a Bulgarian hostage killed by his captors earlier this week. The body was found near Baiji, 112 miles north of Baghdad, Wednesday night.
Kidnappers linked to al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said a week ago they had captured Bulgarian truck drivers Georgi Lazov, 30, and Ivailo Kepov, 32, and would kill them unless U.S.-led forces released Iraqi prisoners.
Earlier this week Arabic satellite television station Al-Jazeera said it had received a videotape showing the decapitation of one of the Bulgarians.
Second deadline passes
A deadline given by the kidnappers for the execution of the second man passed at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The two Bulgarians were transporting cars to the city of Mosul when they disappeared on June 27. Bulgaria said they were simple workers, not political people.
Bulgaria has held its ground on policy, saying its 470 troops in Iraq will stay as long as they are needed.
Several foreigners are missing in Iraq, including a Filipino driver and an Egyptian.
Videotapes of foreign hostages in Iraq have often shown them wearing orange jumpsuits, which are typical of U.S. jails and associated around the world with images of Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay.
Bulgaria was shocked by news one of the two Bulgarian truck drivers was killed. Al Jazeera television said on Tuesday a video of his execution was too gruesome to air.
"We expect to receive the videotape with the execution of one of the Bulgarian hostages in Iraq today," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Viktoria Melamed told Reuters, adding that until then, Bulgaria could not confirm which of the two was killed.
Desperate diplomatic battle
Bulgaria had launched a desperate diplomatic battle to rescue the men, contacting Arab leaders and appealing to the militants through Arab channels.
Bulgarian media on Wednesday identified the man shown kneeling before his captors in a brief clip from the videotape broadcast by Al-Jazeera as Lazov.
His mother, Maria, was shown weeping on TV and officials said the two men's spouses were being treated for "deep shock."
"He was a very good boy, he never got into brawls," Lazov's mother said from Kocherinovo village in southern Bulgaria. "He loved to mix with people, go to pubs. He loved to go fishing. I can't believe he's dead."
News of the execution shocked the poor nation of 8 million and the press on Thursday questioned their country's foreign policy but largely backed its government's handling of the hostage crisis.
"If we bow to terrorists now, this will only show that the butchers have won and that we have capitulated," said the daily Trud in a front page comment.
The government said it was concerned that despite its repeated warnings against travelling to Iraq, more trucks have been heading there since the hostage crisis began.
Bulgarian media reported that a 15-day trip to Iraq could earn a driver up to $1,000, in a country where monthly salaries average $150.
