TWO British hostages whose bodies were flown home from Iraq last week are thought to have been shot dead.
Inquests into the deaths of security guards Jason Swindlehurst, 38, and Jason Creswell, 39, are likely to be opened next week, a spokesman for the Wiltshire Coroner said yesterday.
He said post-mortem examinations had yet to be concluded, but adde
d: "They had suffered gunshot wounds.
"I can't deny that the likelihood is that they died from gunshot wounds."
The spokesman said the families of the two men were being kept informed of developments.
Mr Creswell, originally from Glasgow, and Mr Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, were among a group of five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad on 29 May, 2007.
A group of 40 armed men wearing police uniforms seized the hostages, including an IT consultant, Peter Moore, from Lincoln, and two guards identified only as Alan from Dumbarton and Alec from South Wales, at the Iraqi finance ministry in the capital.
Three other British hostages are still missing in Iraq.
The coroner's spokesman said it was not yet known when Mr Swindlehurst and Mr Creswell were killed.
"It's obviously a question that the family would like answered but, because of all the procedures in place, it would be difficult to confirm a time estimate at this precise moment," the spokesman said.
"What I would expect to happen, in the fullness of time, which will be a period of days, is to maybe be in a position where we can open the inquests as normal," he said.
"The sooner we can complete these procedures to everyone's satisfaction, the better."
In February last year, a video broadcast by Dubai-based TV station al-Arabiya showed a bearded and tired-looking Mr Moore asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown to free nine Iraqis in exchange for the British hostages.
He said: "All I want is to leave this place. I tell Gordon Brown the matter is simple: release their prisoners so we can go."
Five months later, the hostage-takers claimed that one of the two Jasons had killed himself.
Mr Moore's father, Graeme, 59, has angrily condemned the government's handling of the case, describing Foreign Secretary David Miliband as a "total waste of space".
Graeme Moore, a delivery driver from Leicestershire, said he continued to hope his son was alive, but described the wait for any news as "torture".
Mr Brown said he has told the Iraqi prime minister the government is determined to secure the release of the remaining captives.
Responsibility for the kidnapping was at first pinned on Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army.
It was thought to be a retaliatory attack for the killing by British forces of the militia's commander in Basra, southern Iraq, a week earlier.
But Sadr's followers denied responsibility and suspicion fell on splinter groups which the US believes are controlled by Iran.
The release of leading Shia insurgent Laith al-Khazali by US forces on 6 June had sparked fresh hopes the Britons could be freed.
Khazali is a senior member of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or the League of the Righteous, which has been linked to the kidnapping.
