Websites boast ’slaughter’ of women

by Rory McCarthy

Concern was mounting last night over the fate of two Italian aid workers kidnapped
in Baghdad more than a fortnight ago, after two separate statements appeared
on the internet claiming that the women had been killed.

Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were seized with two of their Iraqi colleagues in daylight from their office in central Baghdad on September 7. They had been working in Iraq for several months for the aid agency Bridge to Baghdad.

Statements from two separate groups appeared on different websites yesterday, each claiming the murders. Some statements, supposedly from militant groups in Iraq, have proven to be false in the past.

The first statement came in the early hours of yesterday from a group calling itself the Jihad Organisation, and claimed the women had been killed because Rome refused to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

"We in the Jihad Organisation in Iraq announce that God’s verdict has been passed on the two Italian prisoners by slaughtering, after the Italian government headed by the vile Berlusconi did not listen to our one condition to withdraw from Iraq," it said.

A group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organisation had announced on September 12 that it was holding the women and would kill them within 24 hours unless Italian forces withdrew from the country.

Later the second message appeared, this time from a group called Ansar al-Zawahri.

"The two Italian spies have been decapitated with a knife and without any sympathy or mercy," it said. In a long statement it promised a video of the killings would follow.

A group with the same name had also claimed responsibility for seizing the women, demanding the release of all Muslim women from Iraqi jails. The name Zawahri seems to refer to Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man.

The case of the Italians has remained a puzzle. Several Iraqi officials, including the prime minister, Ayad Allawi, have suggested the aid workers were abducted by a criminal gang, rather than a more sophisticated Islamist militant group like the one holding Ken Bigley. Some have suggested rogue Iraqi security forces were involved.

In Rome Pierferdinando Casini, the speaker of parliament’s lower house, said the government was treating the claims with "total suspicion".

A separate statement from the government said militants were trying to use the media as part of their campaign, and urged "the maximum caution, care and responsibility".

The aid workers were the first women to be taken hostage in Iraq. Their kidnapping sparked outrage in Baghdad as well as Rome.

"What has happened is terrible, especially because this was a humanitarian organisation that came to help the Iraqis," said Sabah Kadhim, Iraq’s interior ministry spokesman.

Ten days before the women were seized, an Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni was kidnapped as he drove to Najaf with the Italian Red Cross. He was later murdered and his body dumped by the roadside.

Bridge to Baghdad said yesterday it prayed the claims of the killings were false. "Until we have certainty, we will not have peace," it said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1311820,00.html