Baghdad, Iraq ? Margaret Hassan, an aid worker kidnapped after decades of helping Iraqis, was believed murdered, her family and aid officials said Tuesday after Al-Jazeera television said it received a video showing a hooded militant shooting a blindfolded woman in the head.

Hassan was believed to be the first foreign female hostage killed in Iraq’s wave of kidnappings. More than 170 foreigners have been abducted this year, and at least 34 killed.

Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq, appears in this image made from television in a videotape aired Oct. 22 on Al-Jazeera.

Hassan’s family in London said the longtime director of CARE in Iraq was likely the victim, and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said analysis of the video showed Hassan has “probably been murdered, although we cannot conclude this with complete certainty.”

CARE said it was in mourning for the 59-year-old Briton, a veteran humanitarian worker known around the Mideast for her concern for Iraqis — particularly during the years of U.N. sanctions, whose effects on children she vocally denounced.

In an emotional appeal on Al-Jazeera, Hassan’s Iraqi husband, Tahseen Ali Hassan, said he had heard of the video but did not know whether it was authentic.

“I appeal to those who took my wife (to tell me) what they did with her. … I want my wife, dead or alive. If she is dead, please let me know of her whereabouts so I can bury her in peace,” he said.

The video shows a hooded militant firing a pistol into the head of a blindfolded woman wearing an orange jumpsuit, said Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout.