Baghdad, Apr 15: One of four Italian hostages being held in Iraq has been killed, Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini announced early today, while Japanese officials tried to confirm reports that two more of their nationals had been abducted. Journalist Alexandre Jordanov, who was taken hostage south of Baghdad 3 days ago, was freed, a French diplomat said. But that left about 40 other foreigners still being held hostage amid a wave of kidnappings.
In a statement sent to Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera, the captors of the Italians said they had "killed the hostage after comments by (Italian Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi ... That the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq was not negotiable."
Al-Jazeera said it had received a "video film and photos showing the murder of the hostage" but said it could not broadcast the material for fear of upsetting its viewers.
Frattini named the dead hostage as Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 35, from Genoa.
The kidnappers threatened to kill the other three hostages "one by one if their demands were not taken into account," al-Jazeera said.
Berlusconi, had said Tuesday there was "no question" of Italy withdrawing its 3,000-strong military from Iraq.
Meanwhile Yukihisa Fujita of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, speaking in Amman, gave more details of the two Japanese kidnapped.
He said one was freelance journalist Junpei Yasuda. He identified the other man simply by his family name, Watanabe.
Bureau Report