Two hostages murdered in Iraq, two freed

A militant group claimed to have killed two hostages in Iraq – one a Turk and the other an Iraqi who was a long-time resident in Italy, the Arab news network Al-Jazeera reported.

Two abducted Indonesian women, meanwhile, were freed, diplomats said.

The station said it had received video footage from a group calling itself the Salafist Brigades of Abu Bakr Al-Sidiq accusing the Turkish and Iraqi hostages of being spies.

A segment broadcast on the network showed four armed militants dressed in black standing behind two kneeling men.

A militant accused the two of spying. The men were shown blindfolded and kneeling in front of a ditch before being shot.

Al-Jazeera identified the Iraqi as Anwar Wali but did not give the Turkish man’s name.

In Italy, Wali’s family said the Italian Foreign Ministry had notified them his death was confirmed.

Ajad Anwar Wali, who worked for a furniture company, was kidnapped at the end of August from his Baghdad office.

He had lived in Italy since the early 1980s and was married to an Italian woman. According to his brother, Wali had formally applied for Italian citizenship and the request had been pending.

Two female Italian aid workers abducted in Baghdad were freed on September 28. The Italian government has denied news reports that a million dollars ransom was paid for the women, but a top member of parliament has said he believes the government paid for their release.

Meanwhile, two Indonesian women reported kidnapped last week were freed and arrived at the embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Baghdad, a diplomat at the embassy said.

Their captors, the Islamic Army in Iraq, had demanded that the Indonesian government release a jailed Islamic radical cleric.

However, the cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir – who Washington says is a terror mastermind in Southeast Asia - denounced the abduction as un-Islamic and rejected being released in response to the kidnapping.

The two women, Rosidah binti Anan and Rafikan binti Aming, who had been working as maids in Baghdad, were seen in a video aired in Al-Jazeera last week along with two Lebanese and six Iraqi hostages that the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed to be holding.

The fate of those other eight hostages was not immediately known.