Freed Iraq hostages raise hopes for others

Kidnappers released two female Italian aid workers and five other hostages, raising hopes for foreigners still in captivity.

But insurgents showed no sign of easing their blood-soaked campaign against the US presence in Iraq, staging a show of defiance in Samarra and striking twice with deadly force in Basra.

Three Egyptian telecommunications workers abducted last week were among those freed yesterday, their parent company, Orascom, announced in Cairo. A fourth Egyptian in the group was released on Monday and two others remain hostage.

It was unclear what prompted the two separate groups of kidnappers to release their captives, including two Iraqis who had been seized with the Italian women, and whether any ransom was paid.

The Italians were wearing full black veils that revealed only their eyes as they were received by the Italian Red Cross in a Baghdad neighbourhood, according to video broadcast by the Arab news station Al-Jazeera.

Looking dazed but smiling, Simona Torretta lifted her veil and repeated, “Thank you,” in Arabic. Simona Pari hesitated before also lifting her veil.

Later yesterday, the two women were flown to a military airport in Rome, where they were greeted by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The two aid workers, now in long, white dresses, emerged smiling and held hands as they walked on the tarmac, their relatives by their side.

Asked by reporters how she felt, Pari said only, “Good.”

Pari and Torretta were abducted on September 7 in a bold raid on the Baghdad office of their aid agency Un Ponte Per … (A Bridge To …).

News of the release came after a Muslim leader from Italy met with an influential Muslim association in Baghdad yesterday to press for their freedom, though it was not immediately known if there was a connection. The two women, both 29, had been working on school and water projects in Iraq.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai al-Aam had reported a $1m (€811,257) payment was involved, but Al-Arabiya TV, citing unidentified sources involved in the negotiations, said no ransom was paid.

The Egyptian charge d’affaires in Baghdad, Farouq Mabrouk, said the kidnappings of the Egyptians were “motivated by financial reasons”. But an Orascom spokesman declined to comment on whether a ransom had been paid.

More than 140 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq – some by anti-US insurgents and others by criminals seeking ransom. At least 26 have been killed, including two Americans whose beheadings were recorded on grisly video footage and posted on the internet last week.

A Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said this week’s releases raised hopes for the at least 18 other foreigners still in captivity, including British hostage Kenneth Bigley, who was captured with the Americans from their Baghdad house on September 16.

On Tuesday, kidnappers of two French journalists who have been held more than a month in Iraq praised France’s ”positive steps toward the Iraqi people”, a sign that they may be preparing to release their hostages.