Baghdad, March 11 (Reuters): American hostage Tom Fox has been killed and his body, showing signs of torture, left at a garbage dump in Baghdad, police said today.

One of the policemen who found the body said the 54-year-old peace activist, wearing a grey tracksuit, appeared to have been beaten with electric cables before his death.

He had a single gunshot wound to the head and his hands were tied behind him.

Fox, who had been in Iraq to campaign against the US occupation and to work for the release of Iraqis held by US forces, was taken hostage with three colleagues in November by a group calling itself the “Swords of Truth”.