Militants in Iraq said they had killed a captive Bulgarian truck driver and threatened to put another hostage, also a truck driver, to death in 24 hours, Al-Jazeera television reported July 14.

The story also was reported by The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, which is based in France.

A video released July 13 contained the killing itself, but was not broadcast because it was too graphic, said Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout. In the footage the channel did show, three men with their faces covered by black masks stood over a kneeling hostage, identified by reporters as Georgi Lazov, 30.

Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group said last week that it would kill the two truck drivers if the United States did not release all Iraqi detainees by July 10.

The other hostage was identified as Ivaylo Kepov. The two were kidnapped while traveling to Mosul. They were last heard from June 29. Bulgarian spokesman Dimitar Tsonev confirmed the killing.

"The only thing we can do now is to continue our efforts to save the second man and pray during the next 24 hours that he will stay alive," Tsonev told reporters.

Bulgaria, which has a 480-member infantry battalion in Iraq, had sent diplomats to Iraq to try to negotiate freedom for the men.

Meanwhile, an insurgent group holding an Egyptian driver demanded that the Saudi company he works for pull out of Iraq within 72 hours, Al-Jazeera reported. The group did not issue a specific threat.

And the Philippines waited for word on the fate of one of its citizens, also a truck driver, held by insurgents demanding the withdrawal of troops. In Manila, officials confirmed they would withdraw the country’s small peacekeeping contingent from Iraq early to meet the demand of kidnappers threatening to kill the driver.

The announcement, which said the pullout was beginning immediately, was a dramatic turnaround by one of Washington's biggest backers in the global war on terrorism. Manila earlier vowed it would not yield to pressure to move up the withdrawal, which had been scheduled for Aug. 20, when the force's mandate ends. It was not clear whether the driver, Angelo dela Cruz, 46, remained alive.