Group threatens to kill hostages in 5 days

IRAQ: An Iraqi armed group released video footage yesterday of three Italian hostages seized more than two weeks ago and said they would be killed in five days unless Italians protested publicly against their county's involvement in the occupation.

Al-Arabiya TV, which broadcast the footage, quoted an accompanying statement as saying: "We will show good faith and free them and ask that they leave the country if you sympathise with our cause, show solidarity with us and publicly reject the policy of your prime minister by staging a big demonstration in your capital to protest against the war and call on your government to withdraw from our country." The statement, signed Green Brigade, added: "We grant you five days, after which we will kill them without any hesitation or any other warning." The footage showed three exhausted-looking men sitting behind a small table and eating from a large pot with their fingers.

The pictures appear to be confirmation that the three private security guards kidnapped on April 12th are still alive, following the execution of a fourth Italian hostage earlier this month.

Nothing had been heard of them since the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, hinted last week that they were about to be released.

There were unconfirmed reports that his government had offered a ransom.

Meanwhile, an explosion in Baghdad killed two US soldiers and injured five others who were trying to search a locked building. Officers confirmed that the team had been looking for "chemical munitions". Those wounded or killed included members of the Iraq survey group, the CIA-backed team that has spent the past year in a fruitless attempt to uncover Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. After the blast a mob looted weapons and equipment from the wrecked Humvees.

In Falluja there were several hours' heavy fighting around a mosque, undermining apparent US attempts to reach a peaceful solution. US military officials said one US marine and eight Iraqi militants had been killed after a US patrol in the northern edge of the city came under fire from a mosque. Marines burst into the building but discovered it was empty. They returned to the area several hours later and came under renewed fire. They called in air strikes, which destroyed the 18-metre minaret.

Meeting UN officials in Jordan yesterday, members of Falluja council claimed that the US had used cluster bombs against civilians in the town this month, and US snipers had shot dead non-combatants during the recent ceasefire.

The delegation's spokesman, Muhammad Taqiq Abdullah, called on the UN to intervene. He said more than 800 people had been killed and 1,800 wounded in the town since the fighting began.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the suicide boat attacks at the weekend on al-Basra oil terminal, according to an Islamic website. - (Guardian Service)