Thanks Mr. Bush
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Posted on Wed, Apr. 14, 2004
Italian Hostage Executed in Iraq
TOM RACHMAN
Associated Press
ROME - An Italian hostage was executed by his Iraqi abductors, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini confirmed Wednesday night, 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, an apology from Berlusconi, and the release of religious clerics held in Iraq.
"We know our duty is to do what is possible and impossible to get them out," the minister said. "We are all only close to the young men who are there, and to the family of the young man who was killed."
Another guest on the TV 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.
Earlier 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, who were kidnapped Monday.
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.
Frattini didn't give details of the Iranian mission. Italy, one of Iran's major trading partners, likely wants the country make the most any leverage Shiite Iran might have in Iraq.
The foreign minister said Rome is working for a new U.N. Security Council resolution, so that "the United Nations can provide an explicit and formal legitimization" to the new Iraqi government. Frattini told Italian state radio that he would be going to New York and Washington soon to lobby for such a resolution.
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.
Italy didn't send in combat troops during the war. Its forces are based in the southern city of Nasiriyah, working on reconstruction.
Three 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.
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