An armed group holding two Pakistani hostages in Iraq had announced their execution, al-Jazeera satellite news channel reported Wednesday evening.  

The Qatar-based TV station said it had received a videotape showing the killings but would not air it as it was too gruesome.

On Monday, the kidnappers said they had kidnapped two Pakistanis and one Iraqi, also reported by the al-Jazeera satellite TV.

The Arab-language channel showed identity cards with pictures that are believed to belong to the hostages.

The group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq said in a statement aired by the channel that the two Pakistanis had been sentenced to death because their country would probably send troops to Iraq.

On Sunday, al-Jazeera reported that two Pakistanis working for a Middle East firm had gone missing in Iraq, raising fears they might have been taken captive.

A Pakistani television channel early on Sunday identified the two as Raja Azad and Sajid Naaim and both of them are from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the channel said.

Speculations about their whereabouts come in the wake of recent abductions of foreigners in Iraq.

Pakistani Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad said President Pervez Musharraf spoke with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and discussed the Iraqi situation.

"The president made it clear that we could consider sending troops only if the request comes from the Iraqi government, other Islamic countries also do the same and our parliament approves it," he said.

Pakistan, an Islamic nation of 150 million people, is a key ally of the United States in its war on "terror."

Islamic groups in Pakistan are, however, opposed to helping US-led occupation forces in Iraq and have threatened protests if Islamabad agrees to send troops.

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2004)