ONE OF five British bodyguards held captive in Iraq by extremists has committed suicide just four days before the first anniversary of their hostage taking, the group holding the men claimed last night. The Islamic Shi'ite Resistance in Iraq - which is demanding the release of nine prisoners in custody in Basra - claimed in a video released last night that one of the men, named only as Jason, had killed himself out of depression and dispair' at his continued captivity.

The hostages, who include two Scots, were snatched from outside the Iraqi Finance Ministry in Baghdad on May 29 last year. Jason, from England, is claimed by the group to have died on May 25 after the group holding him claimed he had taken his own life as the mental state of the five hostages reached "total depression and despair".

In an embarrassing development for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the group said they have "over and over again" spoken to the UK government in an attempt to resolve the situation, but "the government remains indifferent".

The group went on to claim in the video that "procrastination, foot-dragging and lack of seriousness on the part of the British government has prolonged their psychological deterioration, pushing one of them, Jason, to commit suicide. We regret this ... we hold the British government responsible for what has happened and what may happen."

The group also said: "The state of the five hostages had reached total depression and their health and psychological situation had deterorated, which had caused more than one attempted suicide."

The two Scottish hostages include Alan, who is from the outskirts of Glasgow. In another part of the video he urged the UK Government to intervene. Looking drained, Alan said: "I would like for the British government to please hurry."

Late last night British sources close to the negotiations pointed out that although the families had all been informed of the dramatic development there was no independent verification of Jason's suicide. And the source warned that the hostage takers "held all the cards" and described the hostages as pawns in a complicated chess game which the UK government were powerless to control.

The source pointed to the former hostage, BBC TV journalist Alan Johnston, whose captors claimed also had committed suicide before his release last year.

The source said the kidnappers wanted to dominate the news coverage and added: "The government can't do anything. What they have asked for is the release of prisoners who are in coalition custody, and Britain and the US are not going to release them - period.

"What they are hoping is that the UK continues to put diplomatic pressure on the Americans to release the prisoners. One of the difficulties the families have is that they never have full knowledge about what the government is doing behind the scenes. Government policy is clear. They don't negotiate with hostage takers, but there is a lot happening behind the scenes.

"However, there is no proof that he has committed suicide and there was no word that he committed suicide since May - when it's supposed to have happened. We are all surprised by this, although the claims will have to be checked out."

Speaking of claims that the government has not been publicly seen to do enough, the source added: "Having a public appeal doesn't necessarily have any impact because you are talking about some pretty hard core bad guys."

Officials from the security company GardaWorld, who some of the men worked for, have contacted all the families since the revelations emerged. A family friend of one of the Scottish hostages added: "It's very hard to verify the claims. All we know is that it's not our friend and we don't want to speculate any further."