|
'Missing' journos safe in hotel
29/03/2003 16:52 - (SA)
Rome - A group of seven Italian journalists who had been reported missing in southern Iraq were driven all the way to Baghdad by Iraqi soldiers, and showed up safe and sound in Baghdad's Palestine Hotel on Saturday, Italian media reported.
The newspaper Corriere della Serra said one of the seven who worked for it, Francesco Battistini, called the paper to say that he and the six others had been driven from southern Iraq to Baghdad by four Iraqi soldiers and then freed.
He said the seven were all well, and had not been mistreated. They were surrounded by other Italian colleagues at the hotel, which currently houses many journalists working in Baghdad.
Editors at Il Mattino, which employed one of the reporters, confirmed the report.
An earlier report from the Italian national press federation had said the seven were being questioned by the Iraqi authorities after having been taken to Baghdad.
But an Italian foreign ministry spokesperson had said he was unable to confirm that report.
The seven had gone missing on Friday near the southern city of Basra, where a correspondent from the Al-Jazeera television channel said he had sighted them early on Saturday.
Colleagues travelling with the journalists said they went missing after running into a group of armed men in uniform as their vehicles approached Basra.
The last few cars in the convoy turned around and headed back to Kuwait City, where the passengers alerted the Italian embassy.
A group of British soldiers had earlier stopped the reporters as they approached the city and advised them not to continue, but they apparently did not heed the advice.
The journalists work for the Corriere della Sera, Il Messagero, L'Unita, Il Sole 24 Ore, Il Giornale, La Nazione and Il Mattino newspapers.
The Al-Jazerra correspondent in Basra said the Italians had told him they were being treated correctly and given food by the men who had been holding them.
- AFX
|
News
