The governor of Iraq's Anbar province, who was kidnapped earlier this month, was found dead along with his militant captors following a clash with US forces, a government spokesman said today.
Laith Kubba told a news conference the body of Anbar governor Raja Nawaf was found tied to a gas canister in a house near the town of Rawa two days ago.
Elsewhere in Iraq, an Italian army helicopter crashed southeast of the Iraqi city of Nassiriya, killing all four Italians on board.
Italy's military said the cause of the overnight crash was not yet known and said that an investigation was under way.
"The aircraft was returning [to base] after having transported to Kuwait City a member of the contingent who was suddenly affected by a family tragedy," the statement said.
The dead were two machine-gunners and two pilots, all between the ages of 29 and 39.
Italy has some 3,000 forces in Iraq, the fourth largest contingent after the United States, Britain and South Korea.
It was the third aircraft to go down in Iraq within a week.
Four Americans and an Iraqi were killed when an Iraqi Air Force plane went down in eastern Iraq yesterday, probably in a sandstorm.
Last Thursday, a surveillance helicopter was shot down by small arms fire near the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, killing both American soldiers on board.