The beheading of Kim Sun-Il, an Arabic translator working in Iraq, has hit the headlines around the world, with fingers pointing to the Al-Qa’ida organization.
An Islamic website posted a video showing Korean hostage Sun-Il blindfolded, kneeling, and wearing a bright orange suit, with four of his masked captors standing behind him. After relaying a message to the camera, one of the captors stepped back whereas his companion drew out a knife and slit the hostage’s throat with a knife.
The group that took credit for the murder called itself Jama’at A-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, or the Monotheism and Jihad (holy war) Group.
The group is allegedly linked to the international Al-Qa’ida organization and is thought to be led by the Jordanian-born Abu Mu’s’ab A–Zarqawi, who is inching towards the top of America’s most-wanted list in Iraq.
Yet it is hard to determine who exactly comprises this group, or others named as Al-Qa’ida affiliates, said Al-Qa’ida expert Jason Burke, a senior correspondent with British The Observer. “Groups are forming and reforming all the time,” he said, stressing that it is most unlikely that all the groups allegedly linked to Al-Qa’ida answer back to the organization’s head, Osama Bin Laden, who is thought to be hiding in a cave in Afghanistan. However, he said it is likely the group shares similar outlines with other groups which are allegedly Al-Qa’ida-linked, citing their Sunni, Salafist, and Jihadi characters.
The pictures depicting Sun-Il’s murder on the Islamist website were accompanied by a message explaining the victim’s so-called evil intentions in Iraq.
The message, which labeled Sun-Il a “heretic Christian infidel,” said he was working with a “Christian company which provides for the American army and allocates ten percent of its proceeds to converting people to Christianity.” It continued in stressing that Sun-Il specialized in Christian theology and was a candidate to be a priest.
“This is confirmed,” the message said, quoting an English report on Sun-Il’s biography from Korean and international news agencies.
Sun-Il was taken hostage in Iraq earlier in the week and the abductors warned they would kill him if South Korea did not withdraw its forces from Iraq and reverse its decision to send some 3,000 troops to the area, considerably bolstering the number of troops in Iraq. Seoul, however, refused to surrender to the captors’ demands.
Where before the Internet era, news dissemination was calculated and at times sluggish, images from today’s war zones are being spread at an alarming speed, much to the frustration of some Internet users. The issue of disseminating the images of his murder has become a topic of heated debate, alongside condemnation of the killing itself.
Some Internet users maintain the ghastly images have no room on American servers, which link to the Islamist website, making the disturbing pictures accessible to all, including children.