Kidnap Briton is old hand who liked Baghdad life

Glancing nervously as he spoke to The Times, one Mansour resident, too afraid to give his name, said that Mr Bigley had shown little apparent concern for his own safety.

He and his colleagues drove distinctive four-wheel drive vehicles, lived in a house vulnerable to attack from three directions and employed unarmed local guards who disappeared the night before the kidnap.

Mr Bigley and the two American civil engineers living there, Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, had not hired round-the-clock bodyguards from one of the Western security companies offering the services of former American and British troops.

“Kenneth was careless. Once I saw him walking alone in the street,” said the neighbour, a Manchester United supporter who would chat with Mr Bigley about football. The pair used to have friendly arguments about Everton.

“Two weeks ago I told him, ‘Why are you here? It’s dangerous. There are kidnappers.’ “He waved his arm and said, ‘I’m not afraid — you only die once’. I think it was because he is an old man — he didn’t really care about his life. To be frank we were a bit cautious, having such a neighbour. We didn’t go any further in getting to know him.”

Intelligence agencies fear that Mr Bigley, Mr Hensley and Mr Armstrong will be paraded on a militant website, as has happened to other kidnap victims.

Jack Straw. the Foreign Secretary, has telephoned Mr Bigley’s Thai-born wife and other members of his family to reassure them that a specialist team was doing everything possible to secure his swift release. That includes asking influential Shia clerics for their help.

US troops staged raids across the capital in the search for the men, as the company for which they worked moved staff to other suburbs.

Yesterday the family of Mr Bigley issued a statement that said: “We were devastated to find that Ken had been taken, and we are still struggling to come to terms with what is happening. It’s hard to understand why Ken would be targeted in this way, but we would appeal to those who have taken him to please return him safely to us.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of his two work colleagues, too, who must share our distress.”

Mr Bigley had told neighbours how much he was looking forward to retiring and moving to Thailand to be with his Thai wife. He spoke of his son, now in his early thirties, who was born in Australia during his first marriage.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said last night that they were in regular touch with Kenneth Bigley’s family in Britain and abroad. He is believed to have a brother working in the Netherlands.

Kenneth Bigley has lived for some years in the Middle East. He had been working in Baghdad for much longer than most civilian workers dare. Neighbours say he saw this contract with a Gulf-based construction firm as his last, helping towards a nest-egg for his retirement.

The company employing him, Gulf Supplies and Construction Services, said last night: “Our thoughts are with the families of the three men. We are doing everything we can to secure their freedom.”

The firm said that other employees had been moved from Mansour to other areas of the capital and given increased protection.

Mr Bigley’s abduction has prompted the few British civilians living in private accommodation in central Baghdad to move to hotels or seek accommodation on the heavily fortified green zone where embassy staff and most contractors stay.

Nothing is known about the kidnappers but the organisation and timing suggests a gang similar to that which snatched two Italian women from their office in central Baghdad a fortnight ago.

Security guards and contractors — especially from countries that supported the US-led invasion — have long been targets for kidnap but the seizure of the Italian aid workers and of two French journalists indicates that profession and nationality and gender are no longer safeguards.

Last night the British Embassy in Baghdad again issued advice against all but essential travel to Iraq. Britions already working there were told to review their security arrangements and consider moving to guarded premises.

Iraqi police yesterday found the corpse of a blond-haired man 40 miles north of Baghdad. The man, tall and well-built, is thought to be an Australian who was working as a security guard. He had been shot in the back of the head and his hands were cuffed behind his back.

Police pulled the body from the River Tigris near Yethrib. The man appeared to have been dead for some time.

Many governments and firms have contacted Sunni clerics with the Association of Muslim Scholars at Mother of All Battles Mosque, in Baghdad, which is one of the most influential authorities in Fallujah and Ramadi.

The group has issued edicts against targeting civilians, but has spoken out in the strongest terms against the continued American presence in Iraq.

Last night Dr Mohammad Bashar al-Faidi, the association’s spokesman, had little comfort for Mr Bigley’s family. “We have said it is forbidden to kidnap civilians who have nothing to do with the occupation,” he told The Times. “However, any supportive act for the occupiers is rejected. I will not talk about this case because we don’t know them (the kidnapped men) personally and we don’t know if they are supportive of the occupiers.”