Paraskass

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...a/italy_iraq_5

By TOM RACHMAN, Associated Press hahahahahar

ROME - An Italian hostage was hahahahahahahad by his Iraqi abductors, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini confirmed early Thursday, saying an Italian official had seen a videotape of the killing.

Earlier, the Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera reported the killing, saying it had received a video recording of the murder. The Italian ambassador to Qatar, where the network is based, watched the video and confirmed that the man killed was Fabrizio Quattrocchi, one of the kidnapped Italians, Frattini said.


"He saw the film," Frattini said, during a live TV talk show.


Four Italian security guards were abducted Monday. The militants' videotape was accompanied by a statement from a previously unknown group calling itself the Green Battalion, which threatened to "kill the three remaining Italian hostages one after the other, if their demands are not met," Al-Jazeera said.


The group demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq (news - web sites), an apology from Berlusconi, and the release of religious clerics held in Iraq.


"They have cut short a life. They have not damaged our values and our commitment to peace," Premier Silvio Berlusconi said after the death was confirmed. The premier was sending a diplomat, Gianni Castellaneta, to Iraq as an envoy to try to save the remaining hostages.


Frattini said the government would do "what is possible and impossible" to free the remaining three.


"We are all close to the young men who are there, and to the family of the young man who was killed," he said, during a dramatic 90-minute broadcast that dragged from Wednesday night into Thursday morning.


Another guest on the TV talk show, Francesco Cupertino, is a brother of one of the hostages. He asked the minister desperately: "What will happen?"


"We have to work hard to bring them out. We will do everything, we will do everything. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly who these people are," Frattini said, referring to the kidnappers.


On Wednesday, Frattini told an Italian parliamentary commission that the government would not negotiate directly with the kidnappers and would not pay any ransom. He also said an Iranian delegation was headed to Baghdad to help in efforts to secure the release of the Italians.


During his parliamentary speech, Frattini advocated "looking into every means of obtaining the release of the Italians and all the hostages" without "giving into blackmail or employing direct negotiations" with the kidnappers.


Berlusconi on Tuesday ruled out any withdrawal of troops.


Frattini told the parliamentary commission that an Italian withdrawal would be "unimaginable." Pulling out Italy's 3,000 soldiers and paramilitary police from Iraq would mean "the victory of terrorism, civil war and defeat for the Iraqi people."


Italy is the third-largest coalition partner in the occupation force. Italy didn't send in combat troops during the war. Its forces are based in the southern city of Nasiriyah, working on reconstruction.


Three of the Italian captives were working for a U.S.-based company while a fourth was employed by a Seychelles-based firm, Frattini said.


He stressed that the four Italian hostages were not members of Italian intelligence, and that the abductors were "terrorists and killers" who were "out of control" ? not members of any organized resistance.


Meanwhile, news of Quattrocchi's death shook the nation.

The security guard was a 35-year-old who lived in Genoa and used to work as a baker, the ANSA news agency said. He did military service in Italy, but had never been on a foreign mission.

A keen practitioner of martial arts, Quattrocchi began working in security in 2000, taking courses in the field, then working as a nightclub bouncer and a bodyguard, the agency said, citing his family members.

In December, Quattrocchi was contacted to work in Iraq, and decided to take up the offer for the money ? he hoped to be able to buy a house and start a family, the agency said. The plan had been to stay in Iraq for a month, but the work dragged on.

Dozens of foreigners have been taken hostage in recent days in Iraq, amid the most violent uprising since the end of major combat operations was announced in May.

(tr)

__________________

lagwagon

__________________

FTVGirls - FTVMilfs - DanielleFTV