Thanks to all who alerted me about this story earlier. I was holding off until confirmation, but there’s not much doubt now; Spc. Keith M. Maupin, kidnapped in April, was murdered by the mujahideen: Report: Iraqi Militants Kill U.S. Soldier.

The Arab satellite station aired video showing a blindfolded man sitting on the ground. Al-Jazeera said that in the next scene, gunmen shoot the man in the back of the head, in front of a hole dug in the ground. It did not show the killing.

Maj. Willie Harris, public affairs spokesman for the Army’s 88th Regional Readiness Command, said the videotape is being analyzed by the Department of Defense.

“There is no confirmation at this time, that the tape contains footage of Matt Maupin or any other Army soldier,” he said, adding that the Maupin family was briefed “as to the existence of a videotape.”

Al-Jazeera said a statement was issued with the video in the name of a group calling itself “The Sharp Sword against the Enemies of God and His Prophet.” In the statement, the militants said they killed the soldier because the United States did not change its policies in Iraq and to avenge “martyrs” in iraq, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

Maupin was among nine Americans, seven of them contractors, who disappeared after the April 9 attack.