posted on Dec, 16 2004 @ 07:45 PM
An Italian hostage known to be Salvatore Santoro, born on 10th January 1952, is believed to have been executed by an Islamic exetremist group.
Footage was sent to Aljazeera, which showed Salvatore to be bound and blindfolded in a ditch with a gun to his head. The footage also showed his
captors reading a statement along with Salvator's credit card and passport.
story.news.yahoo.com
The Qatar-based station broadcast pictures of Santoro's passport and showed him sitting bound and blindfolded in a ditch with a gun to his head.
In separate footage, four masked and armed men were shown reading a statement.
Quoting a statement from the "Islamic Movement of Iraqi Mujahedeen", Al-Jazeera said Santoro had been killed and the group had found evidence that
he supported the Americans. It did not give further details.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
The Italian foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said, 'everything should be treated with the utmost caution'. This is because the corpse's face was
covered and no clear comparison could be made between the body and the passport photo.
According to Fini the Foreign Ministry had recieved no confirmation of the capture of an Italian in Iraq. At this point in time there has been no
official confirmation of Salvator Santoro's death. However, personaly i believe that Salvator Santoro has been killed because all of the evidence
points in that direction. It is also possible that Fini has not made this official because he
may feel that on some level he is somehow responsible and that more could or should have been done to prevent this. Then again, prior knowledge to the
Islamic group holding hostage Salvator is denied.
[edit on 16-12-2004 by Banshee]