Mystery 'charity worker' executed in Iraq

The body of an Italian, who claimed to be with a British charity, has been displayed by Iraqi rebels who executed him after he crashed through a roadblock.

Masked gunmen took three Iraqi journalists to a location in the desert outside the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi yesterday and showed them the blindfolded body of 52-year-old Salvatore Santoro, a long-time resident of Britain.

Photos showed the body of the man in jeans and a leather jacket, a white rag tied around his eyes, propped up on a sandy incline. Two masked gunmen posed with their automatic rifles pointed at the body.

An Italian passport identified the man as Santoro, and a document from the Italian embassy in Beirut seeking an Iraqi visa described him an aid worker helping Iraqi children.

The letter said Santoro was working for a humanitarian aid group called Contact.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said Santoro went to the embassy in Beirut in November and said he planned to go Iraq for the non-governmental organisation Charity for England and Wales.

The charity appears to be fictitious. There is no group called Charity for England and Wales registered with the Charity Commission in Britain.

The journalists said they were told by the militants that the man had tried to run the roadblock on Monday, hit and killed one of the gunmen, then crashed the car. The gunmen said they then “executed” the man.

The militants stood next to a banner identifying them as members of the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Mujahideen. One told the journalists that the slaying was “a present to Berlusconi’s stupidity” – referring to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a close US ally who has sent troops to Iraq.

“We have warned all foreigners in the past against entering Iraq, especially those from countries which took part in occupying our country,” he said.