British PM Believes Two British Hostages Held in Iraq Dead

Families of two of the three remaining British hostages held in Iraq for two years were deeply troubled when they heard the men are likely dead. The news was broken to them last week by British officials.

Photo: British PM Believes Two British Hostages Held in Iraq Dead

The loved ones of the British hostages are going through anguish and torment.

While Foreign Office officials will not confirm or deny the widespread media reports here that two Britons employed as private security guards in Iraq have died in captivity, various accounts point to the likelihood that Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan are probably dead, Voice of America reports.

Meanwhile the government believes a third kidnapped man is still alive.

Brown said the families of MacLachlan and McMenemy were informed last week that they are believed to be dead, The Associated Press reports.

“This is the worst of news, and my thoughts are with the families, whom I hope will be given the privacy they need to deal with their grief,” Gordon Brown said in a statement.

The bodies of two other guards, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, and Jason Creswell, 39, were handed over to the British embassy in Baghdad last month.

"I and the entire government are committed to doing everything that we can for the release of Peter Moore, whom we still believe to be alive," Brown said, AFP reports.