Brother of Al-Zarqawi Victim: 'May He Rot in Hell'

June 8, 2006 — -- Family members of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's victims met the news of the al Qaeda leader's death from a U.S. airstrike with mixed reactions.

"The man was an animal, and he deserved what he got, and may he rot in hell," Paul Bigley told Channel Four Television in the United Kingdom today. "So he thinks he's going to paradise? I'm convinced the man is in hell."

Bigley's brother, Ken Bigley, was a British contractor working in Iraq when he was kidnapped and beheaded in October 2004, after suffering 22 days apparently at the hands of al-Zarqawi.

"The world has rid itself of a very evil person," Bigley told ABC News in a phone interview.

At the time of his kidnapping, Ken Bigley was only days away from finishing his contract in Iraq and retiring for good.

Nick Berg, a 26-year-old, self-employed Pennsylvania man was also in Iraq on business when he was captured by al-Zarqawi's group in 2004. His beheading, believed to be at the hands of al-Zarqawi, was videotaped and posted on the Internet.

Shortly after his death, Berg was remembered on "Good Morning America" by friends and family.

"Nick, to know him was to love him," Aaron Spool, a close friend of Berg, told "Good Morning America" in May 2004. "He was the most amazing man we ever met. He represented everything that makes America great. I cannot think of what the world will be like now without him."

In June 2004, Berg's father, Michael, told "GMA" he did not want his son's killers to be killed themselves.

"I have no feelings of revenge," Michael Berg said. "I would like these people to be stopped. I would like them to be arrested. I would like them to receive justice. I would not want to see any of them killed. And I don't want revenge. I don't want to personally attack those people."

Reached by telephone today, Michael Berg said he took no satisfaction in al-Zarqawi's death, condemning it as another event perpetuating the never-ending cycle of violence in Iraq.

"Any loss of life is a tragedy," he said. "This war is based on lies, lies that the Bush administration perpetrated on the world.They told us lies about Iraq, lies about weapons of mass destruction, lies about al Qaeda, lies about 9/11."