Their friends and families are much relieved, but life just got more dangerous for westerners in Iraq, especially women.
Two Italian aid workers held hostage in Iraq for three weeks were released by their captors yesterday amid reports that a $1m (£552,000) ransom had been paid to buy their freedom.Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were handed to the Italian Red Cross in Baghdad after they were kidnapped by gunmen from the offices of their charity in the capital on 7 September.
Arriving in Rome on a military aircraft late last night, the two women appeared to be in good health. "It went well, we have been treated with a lot of respect," said Ms Torretta.
Dr Sabah Khadim, the spokesman for the interior ministry in Iraq, said the kidnappers' motive was always to extract a ransom. Italian newspapers, quoting reports from Kuwait, claimed that $500,000 was paid via intermediaries on Monday and the rest was to be paid yesterday. The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, spoke of "difficult" negotiations, and did not comment on whether a ransom had been paid.
The potential PR impact on the West of women hostages is enormous. Not only are kidnappings for ransom in Iraq likely to increase, but we should not forget earlier warnings that terrorist ringleader Musab Zarqawi has a related objective in mind.
Terrorists in the Abu Musab Zarqawi network in Iraq are specifically trying to kidnap an American female service member to further horrify the U.S. public.Two senior defense sources said the word is being passed within the network on the importance of taking one or more women hostage.
"We have heard through intelligence channels that several extremist organizations are attempting to capture coalition servicemen and women," said a senior military officer in Iraq. "We have instituted additional force protection methods to thwart these attempts."
Another defense source said there is an "edict, either on paper or as an order," within terrorist networks to capture an American female service member.
Of the 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about 11,000 are women. They perform a variety of jobs, serving as drivers, medics, aviators, police and clerks. By law, they are banned from land combat, but they can still come into close contact with the enemy.
The defense source said Zarqawi's network apparently wants to further shock the Western world by kidnapping servicewomen and displaying them on videotape. Part of the terrorists' strategy is to cause so much bloodshed that President Bush loses public support for the war and is forced politically to bring the troops home.
Watch your backs.
Posted by Alan at September 29, 2004 12:10 AM