Three freed Italian hostages return home from Iraq
Wednesday, June 9, 2004 12:40 PM PDT
By Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleROME -- After two months in the hands of Iraqi kidnappers, three rescued Italian security guards arrived home Wednesday to the embraces of family members who had waited anxiously for this moment.
"We're home, we're home," burly former hostage Maurizio Agliana said after stepping off an Italian military aircraft. Ex-hostage Umberto Cupertino's 10-year-old niece leapt into his arms. The father of hostage Salvatore Stefio fell to his knees, clutching an Italian flag with one arm and his son with the other.
Italians, most of whom opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, were united in celebrating the safe return of the three. Government opponents, however, worried that the timing of the release could give a boost to Premier Silvio Berlusconi's party with elections for the European Parliament and some local Italian positions just days away.
Before coalition troops freed the men Tuesday, polls indicated that Berlusconi's forces would suffer a significant drop in this weekend's voting. A poor result could put pressure on his national governing coalition.
"I hope no one wants to use this thing for electoral ends because at the center of the election campaign there are other issues that are worth discussing with the electorate," center-left opposition leader Piero Fassino said.
A senior member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party insisted that the hostages' release was not being exploited.
"As Italians, it's necessary to be grateful to this government for how it handled the various phases of the operation," Forza Italia official Sandro Bondi told reporters in Cosenza, southern Italy.
The three men were kidnapped April 12, along with a fourth Italian security guard who was executed by his captors, who issued a videotape of the killing and called on the Italian people to demonstrate against the policies of President Bush and Berlusconi, a U.S. ally.
For weeks, the government worked to win the release of the remaining three, while the families issued repeated pleas to the kidnappers.
Ultimately, coalition forces rescued the men in a bloodless commando raid outside central Baghdad, military and government officials said.
A Polish businessman also was rescued and remained in the Iraqi capital for questioning.
The release of the Italians was the first military rescue of foreigners caught up in a wave of kidnappings in Iraq, where an estimated 20 foreigners remain in captivity.
A kidnapped American truck driver, Thomas Hamill, escaped from a farmhouse about 50 miles north of Baghdad last month and ran to a patrol of U.S. military vehicles.
The Italian hostages were not beaten but had to sleep on the floor and were twice held for several days in a bathroom measuring 6.5-by-6.5 feet, foreign ministry official Alessandro Cevese said.
At one point, Stefio challenged a captor who ordered him to take off his wedding band, declaring: "Well, then shoot me," Cevese said. St
efio was eventually forced to give up the ring.
The men did not know that the fourth hostage, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, had been executed, Cevese said. Quattrocchi may have been killed "because he was identified as someone close to the American structure, since he had a pass released by the CPA, the provisional authorities" in Iraq, Cevese said.
The three men arrived at Rome's Ciampino airport Wednesday after a stopover in Kuwait. They were immediately circled by a throng of family members and officials. Later, authorities whisked the men off for questioning by prosecutors looking into the kidnapping and into Quattrocchi's execution.
During the questioning, the three said more than 10 kidnappers were involved and that they'd seen the faces of some, the ANSA news agency reported. The kidnappers told the three men that Quattrocchi had been freed, the news agency reported.
Differing accounts emerged as to how the three were liberated.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Tuesday that all four were liberated from a hideout on the southern edges of Baghdad, but Berlusconi said later that it was in the Iraqi town of Ramadi, some 75 miles from Baghdad.
Polish authorities said U.S. special forces rescued the hostages, and that Polish commandos participated only in planning the raid. Frattini said Tuesday that Italians had a role in the liberation, but gave no details. The top U.S. general in Baghdad would only say that "coalition forces" conducted the raid.
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