Female journo kidnapped in Iraq
2005-02-04 15:02
Rome - A female Italian journalist was kidnapped at gunpoint on Friday near a mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, her newspaper said.
Giuliana Sgrena, who writes for the leftist daily Il Manifesto, was abducted just after calling her office to say she was fine.
"Giuliana called us a quarter of an hour ago to say she was fine, but five minutes later her interpreter rang us back to say that she had been abducted near a mosque in Baghdad," said Gabriele Polo, one of the daily's directors.
He said it appeared that an armed gang fired on the car she was travelling in, forcing it to stop. She was then seized and driven off.
Polo, whose paper opposed last year's United States-led invasion of Iraq, said US and Iraqi forces and the Italian embassy had been informed of the kidnapping.
20 foreigners seized
An Italian journalist, Enzo Baldoni, was kidnapped on August 20 last year between Baghdad and Najaf. He was killed by the Islamic Army in Iraq and his death shown on a video released over the internet.
In September, two Italian women working for humanitarian organisations were abducted and held for three weeks before being released.
Around 20 foreigners seized since Iraq's hostage crisis began last April remain missing. Militant groups claim to have murdered more than 30 foreign captives but the authenticity of some claims has been questioned.
Florence Aubenas, a 43-year-old senior correspondent for the left-leaning French newspaper Liberation, and her Iraqi translator Hussein Hanun al-Saadi have not been heard from since they left her Baghdad hotel on January 5.