nds76
03-11-2006, 4:30pm
(CBS/AP) The body of the only American among four Christian peace activists kidnapped late last year was found near a west Baghdad railway line with gunshots to his head and chest, Iraqi police said Saturday.
Tom Fox, 54, from Clear Brook, Virginia, was the fifth American hostage killed in Iraq. There was no word on his fellow captives, a Briton and two Canadians, who were last seen without Fox in a brief, silent video dated Feb. 28 and broadcast Tuesday on Al-Jazeera television.
His Chicago-based group said: "We mourn the loss of Tom Fox, who combined a lightness of spirit, a firm opposition to all oppression, and the recognition of God in everyone."
"In response to Tom's passing, we ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done," Christian Peacemaker co-directors Doug Pritchard and Carol Rose said in a statement.
Fox had visited detained Iraqis, escorted shipments of medicine to clinics and hospitals, and worked to form an Islamic Peacemaker Team, said Paul Slattery, a member of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting that Fox, a Quaker, also attended in McLean, Virginia.
"He actually believed in his heart that he would better them by his conviction and his beliefs and his skills, and I think largely succeeded," Slattery said. "What he leaves behind is a tremendous challenge for the rest of us and a guiding force."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/10/iraq/main1391613.shtml
Tom Fox, 54, from Clear Brook, Virginia, was the fifth American hostage killed in Iraq. There was no word on his fellow captives, a Briton and two Canadians, who were last seen without Fox in a brief, silent video dated Feb. 28 and broadcast Tuesday on Al-Jazeera television.
His Chicago-based group said: "We mourn the loss of Tom Fox, who combined a lightness of spirit, a firm opposition to all oppression, and the recognition of God in everyone."
"In response to Tom's passing, we ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done," Christian Peacemaker co-directors Doug Pritchard and Carol Rose said in a statement.
Fox had visited detained Iraqis, escorted shipments of medicine to clinics and hospitals, and worked to form an Islamic Peacemaker Team, said Paul Slattery, a member of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting that Fox, a Quaker, also attended in McLean, Virginia.
"He actually believed in his heart that he would better them by his conviction and his beliefs and his skills, and I think largely succeeded," Slattery said. "What he leaves behind is a tremendous challenge for the rest of us and a guiding force."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/10/iraq/main1391613.shtml