Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Wednesday that the killing of a US civilian is "barbaric" although there is no excuse for the Americans to abuse the Iraqi prisoners.

A video broadcast on Tuesday showed an American civilian was beheaded in Iraq by a group affiliated to the al Qaeda, an international terrorist network.

One of five masked men read a statement that urged Muslims to seek revenge after pictures showing the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, the video showed.

Downer said he had been unable to watch the entire film of the murder, adding he did not have the guts to look at the whole thing.

"Whatever you say about the maltreatment of prisoners by the Americans -- and obviously we are appalled at that -- there are some appalling people out there in Iraq and I was just horrified at those scenes," Downer told the John Laws radio program.

"There's no excuse for what those Americans have been doing in those prisons but there's no doubt that some of the people they're dealing with are barbaric," said Downer.

Source: Xinhua