Edwin Dyer, British Hostage, Executed by Al Qaeda in Mali

by Jarrett Martineau | June 3, 2009 at 10:26 am

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Edwin Dyer, a British man who was taken hostage by an organization affiliated with Al Qaeda in January 2009, has been executed.

News of Dyer's death comes after the group, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's demands for the UK to release Palestinian cleric Abu Qatada were not met.

Dyer is said to have been executed on May 31, 2009, a day after the group's second deadline for Qatada's release expired.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed outrage and sorrow over the event calling it a "tragedy" that "strengthens [his government's] determination never to concede to the demands of terrorists, nor to pay ransoms".

An Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa said on Wednesday that it had killed a Briton it abducted in Mali last January.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said there was “strong reason to believe” that the captive had been executed. He called the killing “barbaric.”

The Briton, identified as Edwin Dyer, was taken hostage on January 22 along with a Swiss citizen and two other tourists in Niger, close to the border with Mali, but was held in Mali.

The group, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, had demanded the release of Abu Qatada, a Jordanian-born Palestinian cleric held in Britain whom a Spanish judge has called the leading Al Qaeda lieutenant in Europe.