Gunmen waylaid a minibus carrying foreign technicians to their jobs at a mobile telephone company in western Baghdad today, seizing four Egyptians in the second kidnapping of foreigners in the Iraqi capital within a week.

In a second claim in 24 hours, a militant group claimed on the internet to have killed two Italian women hostages in Iraq.

An internet statement by a group which had claimed to have kidnapped two women aid workers in Iraq has said that it has killed its hostages.

AN Islamist group in Iraq said last night it killed two female Italian hostages in a statement posted on an internet site not often used by Iraqi militants.