The al-Qaida linked Army of Ansar al-Sunna said on Thursday that it had murdered a Briton and a Swede in Iraq, according to a statement posted on an Islamic website.

The group "kidnapped two agents ... working for an intelligence service of the infidel forces in the region of Beiji" and executed them, said the statement, whose authenticity needs to be verified.A British employee of a private security firm was killed in central Iraq on Wednesday, according to his company.

The man was killed along with an Iraqi colleague when they

travelled in a convoy near a power station complex, while another foreign national went missing, it said.