Al-Jazeera: Italian Hostage Killed on Tape

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=4&u=/ap/20040414/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_italian_hostage


AIRO, Egypt - An Arab network broadcast a report Wednesday that it has a video showing the killing of one of four Italian hostages being held by militants in Iraq.

Al-Jazeera told The Associated Press that the footage shows the four sitting on the ground, holding up their passports and surrounded by armed men. The satellite station said the tape showed the death of one of the hostages, but did not broadcast it to "protect the audience's feelings."

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The tape was accompanied by a statement, from a previously unknown group called the Green Battalion, which threatened to "kill the three remaining Italian hostages one after the other, if their demands are not met."

The four Italian security guards working for a U.S.-based company were abducted Monday.