The beheaded body of a British doctor working for the Red Cross has been found by the roadside in Quetta, Pakistan nearly four months after he was kidnapped by suspected militants.

Red Cross officials said 60-year-old Khalil Rasjed Dale had been managing a health program in Quetta for almost a year when he was kidnapped on January 5 while returning home from work. The identities of his captors are unknown.

The director of the Red Cross condemned the “barbaric act” and British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the killing a “senseless and cruel act.”

Quetta police said a note was found with the body in which the Pakistani Taliban claimed the killing, saying the doctor had been beheaded because a ransom had not been paid.

Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, is located close to the border with Afghanistan. The Red Cross operates clinics in the city that treat people wounded in the war in Afghanistan.

Also Sunday, U.S. drone strikes killed at least two suspected militants in the restive North Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan.

The strike comes as U.S. officials are trying to rebuild a diplomatic relationship with Pakistan. Islamabad wants the U.S. to stop the drone strikes, arguing that they are counter-productive because they kill civilians, exacerbate anti-U.S. sentiment and violate sovereignty.

Washington says the strikes are crucial to defeating al-Qaida and the Taliban.