BAGHDAD, 16 April 2004 — Three Japanese hostages were freed yesterday by their Iraqi captors hours after another group killed one of four Italian security workers being held hostage. And the United States said it would send more troops to stabilize Iraq as an Iranian diplomat was gunned down in Baghdad.
The top generals in the Middle East and in Iraq, Gen. John Abizaid and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, have “decided they want more capability given the current security situation here in Iraq,” said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“That capability will, as in the past, be provided to our commanders in the field,” Myers said.
The three Japanese, apparently well, were handed over to a Sunni organization in Baghdad which has been facilitating hostage releases, then driven to the Japanese Embassy. The three — Nahoko Takato, a 34-year-old aid worker, Noriaki Imai, a recent high school graduate, and 32-year-old photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama — were captured last week. Two more Japanese civilians have been reported missing near Baghdad.
Italy vowed to keep its troops in Iraq despite the murder of one of four Italian hostages held there. “They have destroyed a life. They have not cracked our values and our efforts for peace,” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said after the killing of Fabrizio Quattrocchi. Al-Jazeera TV received a videotape of the murder, which it said was too bloody to screen.
A leading member of the right-wing Northern League party, part of Berlusconi’s governing coalition, said Western countries should expel 1,000 Muslim immigrants for every day hostages are held by Iraqis.
“For every day the hostages are held, each country should revoke the residence papers of 1,000 Islamic immigrants from so-called rogue states and expel them,” said Roberto Calderoli, the xenophobic party’s deputy leader.
“The law of ‘eye for eye, tooth for tooth’ is a cruel law, but it’s the only one that criminal beasts of this kind understand,” said Calderoli, who is also deputy speaker of the Italian Senate.
Underscoring the lawlessness sweeping Iraq, an Iranian diplomat was killed near the Iranian mission in Baghdad. Iran state television named him as First Secretary Khalil Naimi.
“We have been told that he was driving his car to go to the embassy and three men drove up and shot him,” an Iranian official said.
An Iranian delegation has been in Iraq to help mediate between US-led authorities and Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
US troops are poised around Najaf, where Sadr is holed up. The United States has vowed to kill or capture him and destroy his militia, which launched an uprising this month.
Bowing to Shiite clerics anxious to avoid any battle in the city, Sadr has offered unconditional talks, a negotiator said.
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, has warned the chief US administrator via Shiite members of Iraq’s Governing Council that Najaf is a “red line” which US troops should not cross.
In Fallujah, the second largest mosque was shelled by US forces yesterday. The top of the minaret of the Hadret Mohammediya Mosque and religious school was destroyed in the shelling at about 6:30 p.m.
Parts of the outer wall were also hit and most of the windows of the complex were destroyed.
US military commanders have said they would not shy from firing at mosques in the city if they determined they were being used by fighters to attack troops.
