Iraq: The hostage situation in Iraq took a dramatic turn last night when the Arab television channel Al Jazeera reported the abductors of four Italians had killed one hostage and were threatening to kill the rest.
The kidnappers said they had started killing them because Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi had rejected their demand to withdraw his country's troops from Iraq.
Mr Berlusconi made a public statement soon after the capture of the four men saying Italy's mission in Iraq was "absolutely not under discussion".
Italian Foreign Minister Mr Franco Frattini, speaking on state television last night, said he was unable to confirm the report but hoped it was false. Up to yesterday none of the over over 40 foreigners from 12 countries being held had been killed.
Al Jazeera Arab television aired a tape on Tuesday of four men described as Italians being held by an obscure Iraqi Islamist group which demanded that Italy withdraw its forces from Iraq.
The four men in civilian clothes were shown seated on a floor and holding up their passports, surrounded by gunmen whose faces were covered by traditional Arab headscarves. The name on one passport could be seen as Fabrizio Quattrocchi.
"The Italian government . . . should vow and give guarantees to withdraw its forces from Iraq and give a time schedule and to free Muslim clerics in Iraq," a voice on the film said, adding the men were captured in the Sunni Muslim town of Falluja and that the abductors were a unit of a group the station said was calling itself the Mujahideen Brigades. The same group kidnapped three Japanese civilians and threatened to kill them but negotiators involved in the case have said the three were safe. A Foreign Ministry official in Rome confirmed on Tuesday that four Italian employees of a security firm called DTS were missing.
Meanwhile, the UN's adviser on Iraq made a surprising attack on Washington's handling of its year-long occupation last night, condemning the detention of prisoners without trial or charge and offering a withering analysis of America's governance of the country.
Mr Lakhdar Brahimi also criticised the Americans for their onslaught on Falluja. "The cordoning off and siege of a city is not acceptable. Collective punishment is not acceptable," he said. His comments, on a day when the US said that another eight of its soldiers had died, were unexpectedly sharp. After a 10-day visit to Iraq, where he met ministers, politicians, trade unionists, intellectuals, women's groups and other civil associations, he prefaced his catalogue of American mistakes by saying: "We heard of many grievances which need to be addressed."
As he made his comments there were more clashes between Sunni insurgents and US marines in Falluja. Witnesses said an air strike hit the Hay al-Dubat area at dusk. Four civilians and two rebels died in overnight fighting.
Iraqi mediators said they had extended the much-violated truce for 48 hours. They had achieved an agreement under which the Iraqi police would return to duty and US forces would withdraw.
Army officers said that eight more US soldiers had died in combat, bringing to 93 the number killed in action in April.
In Baghdad US soldiers fired on looters raiding a military lorry, killing or wounding several. In Mosul, four civilians were killed by a rocket aimed at a police station.
A French television journalist who was taken hostage as he filmed an American military convoy being attacked was freed. Capa Television in Paris said Alexandre Jordanov was kidnapped on Sunday.
Russia will today begin evacuating from Iraq 816 people, including its citizens and people from other parts of the former Soviet Union, who were mostly involved in rebuilding the country's energy infrastructure. - (Reuters, Guardian Service)