Freed hostage 'misses Iraq'
2004-09-29 17:12
Rome - One of the two Italian women hostages freed after being held for three weeks in Iraq said on Wednesday she missed the country and her Iraqi friends and wanted to return soon.
Aid worker Simona Pari was released on Tuesday with her colleague Simona Torretta and two Iraqi colleagues and flown back to a rapturous welcome in Italy.
"I want to send a hello and a big kiss to all the people of Iraq, to all our friends," a smiling Pari told reporters outside her home in Rimini on Italy's northeastern Adriatic coast.
"I miss the children, the women, all our Iraqi friends and all the Iraqi people a great deal, we know they were close to us at this time," she said.
"I hope to go back to Iraq very soon because it's a country I really love a lot."
"I am very happy, but of course I miss Simona (Torretta) a lot," she said.
The two friends were held together after being seized on September 7.
- AFP