Hostages Were Tortured, Beaten to Death By Shia Group

Via The Buffalo News:

Horrific details about the deaths of four men who were taken hostage in Iraq with Jonathon M. Cote began to emerge Thursday, as his family called upon the federal government to expand efforts to capture the killers.

Francis L. Cote doesn’t know yet how his son died, but he fears that Jonathon was beaten and tortured, based on information he has received from the family members of other hostages who were killed.

“Based on the autopsies of the other victims, it appears that they were beaten to death, while their hands were tied behind them,” Cote said. “I don’t want our government ever to forget what happened to Jonathon or these other four men.”

On a day of grief for the Cotes, family members of the other victims told The Buffalo News horrible details about the other deaths:

• The men may have been killed more than two months ago, based on the decomposition of the remains. Their bodies were found in an undisclosed location in Iraq.

• The victims were savagely beaten to death, probably with their hands tied behind their backs.

• One of the men suffered neck wounds so severe that he was nearly decapitated.

• The men suffered severe internal trauma, according to autopsies.

• No bullet wounds were found in the corpses.

Sharon DeBrabander of Lee’s Summit, Mo., mother of hostage John Young, told The News that her son experienced an especially grisly death.

“His head was nearly cut off, but they all had a lot of trauma,” DeBrabander said. “From what I’m told, their hands were tied. My son not only had trauma to the head, but his chest. His ribs were broken, and there was internal bleeding.”

The five security contractors were taken hostage by a group calling themselves Mujahideen of Jerusalem Company in late 2006. A video of the hostages was released by the group in early 2007.

So, if you thought extremist Shia groups were any less brutal and savage than Sunni groups like al-Qaeda or Ansar al-Sunnah, you were wrong.

Please keep the families of these men on your prayers. We hope and pray that the murderous thugs who took them are found and justice is served.

Cross-posted from The Jawa Report.