A Turkish hostage in Iraq was killed by militants, an Islamic website showed Monday. The website showed a sequence of five pictures, showing a man identified as a Turk kneeling in front of three masked, armed militants.

One picture showed the blindfold hostage was held at gunpoint by one masked man, and another showed the hostage lying face down on the floor.

Blood could be seen pouring out of his head.

However, the authenticity of the footage could not be verified since there was no date on the video.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said they could not confirm the identity of the victim.

The Tawhid and Jihad group, linked to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, released a videotape aired on Al-Jazeera television on July 31, which showed three masked gunmen standing behind two men, identified by al-Jazeera as Turkish truck drivers.

The militants demanded their employer, a Turkish company delivering goods to US forces in Iraq, quit the country, threatening to behead the hostages within 48 hours if their demands were not met.

Militants with ties to al-Zarqawi have claimed responsibility for a series of bombings and at least three foreign hostage beheadings, including a US businessman, a South Korean translator and a Bulgarian truck driver.

Al-Zarqawi, the top US militant target in Iraq, had a bounty of US$25 million on his head.

This execution was the latest in a series of hostage killing, while in the meantime, two other hostages were released.

Earlier on Monday, al-Jazeera reported that the same Islamic group said it decided to free a Somali driver held hostage in Iraq after his Kuwaiti firm agreed to stop business there.

Late Sunday, a Lebanese hostage was also freed by his captors.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2004)