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Italy negotiates for journo
05/02/2005 12:21 - (SA)
Baghdad - Rome was on Saturday seeking the release of an Italian reporter kidnapped outside a Baghdad mosque while Iraq's main Shiite coalition held onto a commanding lead as vote counting progressed, and Germany proffered aid for Iraq, including military training.
Giuliana Sgrena, 56, a correspondent for the leftist Il Manifesto daily, was abducted on Friday after visiting a mosque where refugees have been encamped since the devastating United States-led assault on Fallujah in November.
The area is one of notorious danger for journalists. French journalist Florence Aubenas was snatched a month ago as she worked on the same story and another Western reporter narrowly escaped an abduction attempt 10 days ago.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told his Forza Italia ruling party that "the negotiating machinery has been set in motion" to press for the journalist's release.
Germany pledges help
Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Sgrena had "probably been kidnapped by a Sunni (Arab) group" and pledged Rome's commitment "to do everything possible to secure her release."
An Iraqi guard working on the Baghdad University compound sheltering the refugees, witnessed the capture and said Sgrena's driver and translator were spared when a gunfight broke out between the kidnappers and campus security.
Dozens of foreigners, including journalists and aid workers, have been abducted by Sunni Arab insurgents and a number murdered since the spate of hostage-taking erupted last April.
The so-called Islamic Jihad Organisation handed Berlusconi, who has faced down domestic opposition to be one of the US' staunchest Iraq allies, a chilling 72-hour deadline to pull his 3 000 troops out of Iraq.
Meanwhile, Germany, a fierce critic of the war in Iraq, offered on Friday to provide more help for reconstruction in Iraq, during a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on her fence-mending tour of Europe.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced Germany was prepared to extend its training programmes for the Iraqi police and military which are currently taking place in the United Arab Emirates.
Germany has repeatedly refused to send troops to Iraq and Schroeder indicated no change in position.
Electoral commission officials continued to tally votes from across Iraq, five days after the country held its first democratic polls in half a century.
With 3.3 million votes counted out of an estimated eight million ballots cast last Sunday, the coalition of Shiite parties backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani held a commanding lead over its challengers.
Commission chairman Abdel Hussein al-Hindawi said the United Iraqi Alliance had mustered two-thirds of the votes cast in the 35% of polling stations where counting was now complete.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's list came in a distant second at 17%, he added.
- AFP
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