Beheaded body "could be Bulgarian"

A beheaded body pulled from the Tigris River may be one of two Bulgarian truck drivers held hostage by militants in Iraq.

Police in Mosul said the body was being handed over to the Interior Ministry in Baghdad. DNA tests were being conducted on the body to determine its identity.

A US military spokesman said the body, decapitated and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, was retrieved from the Tigris northwest of Bayji, about 50 km north of Tikrit.

Earlier this week, the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera said it received a videotape showing one of the two Bulgarians had been beheaded.

The group, which claims loyalty to insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also took responsibility for beheading U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il.

In Sofia, Bulgaria, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Bulgarian officials have not determined the fate of the hostages. Bulgaria, a new member of NATO, has 470 troops based in the central Iraq city of Karbala.

Source: CRI