A video showing a US hostage being decapitated by militants linked to al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a hoax, an Islamic website said Saturday.

"The video showing the execution of the American is fabricated,"declared the website, "It was made by the American himself and his colleague in San Francisco."

Earlier on Saturday, a young man who claimed himself as Benjamin Danforth was shown being beheaded in the video released.

"We need to leave this country right now. If we don't, everyone is gonna be killed in this way," the young man said in the video before it showed him being beheaded.

Source: Xinhhua