Hostage Crisis Resolved
U.S.-Led Coalition Frees Italian Hostages
By Francesca Di Meglio
 

The captor pointed his pistol at Italian hostage Fabrizio Quattrocchi on April 14. Trying to take off his hood, the 36-year-old hostage shouted, Now, I’ll show you how an Italian dies, according to reports from Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.
He died a hero, Frattini said.
Quattrocchi and three other Italians were abducted near Baghdad in Iraq on April 12. But Salvatore Stefio, Umberto Cupertino, and Maurizio Agliana only discovered that their friend had been killed after getting rescued by a U.S.-led coalition on June 8.
Coalition forces also rescued two Polish hostages, who were abducted on June 1 and held captive with the Italians in a house in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The rescue was bloodless and quick, according to accounts given by the hostages. The suspects involved in the kidnapping have been detained, according to the Associated Press. And Italian authorities are conducting an investigation of Quattrocchi’s murder. Already, reports have surfaced that the terrorists might have been prompted to kill Quattrocchi because he was carrying a pass from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.
A militant Sunni group called the Green Brigade said it had captured the four Italian men for being spies. The Italian government said Quattrocchi and his colleagues were working as security guards for a private United States firm.
The Green Brigade demanded that Italian military pull out of Iraq numerous times. The Italian news agency ANSA reported that authorities recovered a statement that would be posted on a Web site claiming that the remaining hostages had been killed and a video of their murder would be released. The message, which surfaced days before the rescue, was signed Al Quds Brigades, according to CNN.com.
A day after returning to his hometown of Prato, outside of Florence, Agliana told reporters that the kidnappers often threatened them with murder and only gave them full meals when filming videos that later appeared on Arab television. We were not physically mistreated, Agliana said. This is the only positive thing to say.
The abduction and Quattrocchi’s murder raised new questions about the safety and purpose of Italians in the Middle East, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi responded with resolve. They have broken a life, they have not cracked our values and our desire for peace, according to a statement issued by Berlusconi, a supporter of President George W. Bush and the U.S.-led effort in Iraq.
Currently, about 3,000 Italian troops are stationed in Iraq for reconstruction and humanitarian work. In November, a suicide bombing in Nasiriyah killed 18 Italian paramilitary and prompted debates about whether the troops should remain there.
In Italy, even before the hostage situation, there were numerous demonstrations against the U.S.-led effort in the Middle East. But some political commentators said that the successful rescue of the hostages could sway public opinion and boost Berlusconi in his bid for re-election.
Before the rescue, the killers returned Quattrocchi’s remains to the Red Cross, and DNA tests proved it was his body. On May 29, Quattrocchi’s family, friends, President of the House Pier Ferdinando Casini, Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini, and Minister for Italians Overseas Mirko Tremaglio said good-bye to Quattrocchi at a funeral in Genoa, his home city. More than 500 people attended the service at the San Lorenzo cathedral.
The restitution of the human remains, even if it does not erase the atrocity of the crime committed can help the healing and give hope of freedom, said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in his sermon, according to Agenzia Giornalistica Italia. We are already mourning too many victims and the new Iraq must not be stained with innocent blood or tormented by excessive pain.
On the day of Quattrocchi’s burial, al-Quaeda operatives took in 50 hostages – many of them Italians and Americans – after a rampage through the Saudi Arabian city of Khobar. Stefio, Cupertino, Agliana, and the Poles are the first foreigners to get rescued by U.S.-led troops after a wave of kidnappings that have swept the Middle East since early spring. According to media reports, about 20 foreigners remain in captivity in Iraq.