British hostage Ken Bigley was beheaded near Baghdad on Thursday afternoon, insurgent sources in the rebel-held town of Fallujah said yesterday.
Abu Dhabi Television, quoting "informed" sources in Iraq, had said earlier that the militant group led by al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had killed Bigley.
Britain's Foreign Office said it was aware of the reports.
"We cannot corroborate the reports ... We are in close touch with Mr Bigley's family at this difficult time," a Foreign Office spokesman said in London.
The insurgent sources said Bigley was killed in the town of Latifiya, about 35km southwest of the Iraqi capital.
They declined to say how they had got their information.
Britain's Sky TV, quoting British government sources, also said Bigley had been killed.
The 62-year-old engineer was kidnapped in Baghdad on Sept. 16 by the Tawhid and Jihad Group which has beheaded two American hostages who were seized along with the Briton.
The kidnappers had demanded US-led forces in Iraq release women prisoners in Iraqi jails to spare Bigley's life. Washington says it holds only two women in Iraq, both top weapons scientists from the days of former president Saddam Hussein.
The British say they are not holding any women.
Iraqi Interior Ministry officials in Baghdad said they had no information on the report.
Meanwhile, US warplanes struck a building in rebel-held Fallujah where the US command said leaders of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network were meeting early yesterday. A doctor said the attack killed 13 people, including a groom on his wedding night, and wounded 17 others.
The attack came despite signs of progress in negotiations to bring Iraqi government forces back into Fallujah for the first time in months.
Elsewhere, an aide to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr offered on Thursday to disarm his Mahdi Army militia in a move that could bring an end to weeks of fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City. The government welcomed the offer and suggested other militant groups also lay down their arms.
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