One Abducted Italian Hostage Killed

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini announced on April 14 (local time) that the Iraqi opposition force has killed one of the four Italians hostages it had abducted.

This is the first time the opposition force killed a civilian hostage on the grounds of refusing to withdraw troops from Iraq.

The Arabian satellite TV, Al-Jazeera reported that the tape sent from the opposition force will not be aired as the murder scene is too gruesome.

Along with the videotape, in a statement sent by the group calling itself the “Green Brigade,” the group threatened, “We are waiting for you to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq or else we will kill the remaining three hostages one by one.”

However, Italian President Silvio Berlusconi said pulling his troops out of Iraq was "out of the question."

On April 15, the Japanese media also reported that two Japanese freelance writers, Yasuda Junpei (30) and Watanabe Nobutaka (36), were abducted by armed forces near Fallujah.

There is growing concern whether the two Japanese will be killed after the Italians by the opposition force as two additional hostages were seized before the release of the three remaining Italians hostages.

Ho-Gab Lee gdt@donga.com