The European Union, the Arab League, the pope, Muslim and pacifist groups in Italy appealed on Wednesday for the release of two Italian women abducted in Iraq while working for a humanitarian group that helps populations stricken by war.
Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were kidnapped along with two Iraqi nationals on Tuesday by an armed commando that stormed into their offices in central Baghdad.
An Islamic terror group has since claimed responsibility for the abduction in a message posted in an internet site.
”We announce today that we have taken two members of the Italian intelligence, two criminals: Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. This is only the first of our attacks against Italy,” read a message signed by a group named in the Italian press as Ansar al-Zawahari (the followers of Zawahari).
Both women work for A Bridge for…, an NGO established after the Gulf War of 1991 and formerly known as A Bridge for Baghdad.
In Wednesday’s message, which Egyptian experts have described as lacking credibility, Ansar al-Zawahari said the kidnapping was an act of revenge against Italy’s military presence in Iraq.
Italy has an estimated 2 700 troops in Iraq, the third-largest contingent in the country serving in United States-led military operations there.
In Brussels, EU officials appealed for the women’s release, noting that they were involved in implementing EU-funded programmes in Iraq.
”These people are dedicated to delivering vital assistance to the most vulnerable victims of the crisis,” said EU aid chief Poul Nielson.
Voicing his ”shock and horror”, European Commission President Romano Prodi said that the targeting of aid staff who are in Iraq to help alleviate extreme suffering is a ”direct assault on universal humanitarian values”.
The chorus of appeals calling for the women’s release was joined by the Arab League in Cairo and by Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
Moslem and pacifist groups in Italy also expressed their horror over the kidnapping.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, meanwhile, sought to create a united political front by meeting opposition leaders who had opposed Italy’s involvement in the conflict.
”The fight against terrorism cannot be won without a conscious, convinced and united reply and without the mobilisation of all public opinion, regardless of ideology,” said Berlusconi’s right-hand man, Gianni Letta, after the meeting in Rome.
Italy was still coming to terms with the kidnapping and murder last month of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni when reports of the two women’s abduction reached Italy.
In April, four Italians working as private security guards in Iraq were also abducted, of whom one was murdered and three later freed. — Sapa-DPA