PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Michael Berg, whose son Nick was beheaded in Iraq in 2004, said on Thursday he felt no sense of relief at the killing of the al Qaeda in Iraq leader blamed for his son's death.
Asked what would give him satisfaction, Berg, an anti-war activist and candidate for U.S. Congress, said: "The end of the war and getting rid of George Bush."
The United States said its aircraft killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader who masterminded the death of hundreds in suicide bombings and was blamed for the videotaped beheading of Nick Berg, a U.S. contractor, and other captives.
In a telephone interview from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, the father said: "I have no sense of relief, just sadness that another human being had to die."
Berg, who is running as a Green Party candidate, has repeatedly blamed President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his son's death.
Nick Berg's videotaped beheading by hooded captors was posted on the Internet, and the father said he could understand what Zarqawi's family was going through.
"As the poet John Donne said, any man's death diminishes me. It doesn't bring my son back, and this will just bring a new cycle of revenge killings," the father said.
Zarqawi's organization took responsibility for the execution of Nick Berg, 26, in May 2004. The video was published with a caption saying: "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American."
When an Islamist Web site showed the video of a man severing Berg's head, the CIA said Zarqawi was probably the one wielding the knife.
The father said he was not convinced that Zarqawi's organization was responsible for his son's killing, as stated by the U.S. government. "I have been lied to by my own government," he said.
