Video reveals full horror of Italian hostage's execution

Silvio Berlusconi and his government were last night confronted with their involvement in Iraq when one of four Italian hostages was murdered in reprisal for the prime minister's refusal to withdraw troops from the country.

The kidnappers, from a previously unknown group called the Green Battalion, threatened to kill the other three hostages if their demands were not met.

The Arab television station al-Jazeera told Reuters news agency last night it had received footage of the killing but would not broadcast it because it was "too bloody".

The US Fox network reported that the video showed a hooded man being killed by a shot to the head. The hood was then removed.

The dead man was named last night as Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 36, from Genoa. The Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, confirmed during a live chat show that an Italian official had seen the video of the execution.

Al-Jazeera's spokesman said: "They slaughtered the hostage because of Berlusconi's last remarks refusing to withdraw troops from Iraq."

On Tuesday, after it was confirmed that the four men had been taken, Italy's prime minister said the presence of Italian forces in Iraq was "absolutely not under discussion".

Last night, he reinforced his position that Italy would not be cowed into withdrawing its troops. "They have cut short a life. They have not damaged our values and our commitment to peace," Mr Berlusconi said after the death was confirmed.

Mr Frattini had earlier told a parliamentary committee the Italian government would use "every means" to free the four men, but without giving in to the kidnappers' "blackmail, which is the fruit of out and out criminal, terrorist activity".

The killing of the Italian raised concern for the dozens of foreigners reported to have been abducted in Iraq in recent days.

A US spokesman said on Tuesday that 40 foreigners from 12 countries were being held.

Yesterday, a French television journalist was freed after a four-day ordeal, which, he said, was marked by constant movement and threats to his life. Alexandre Jordanov, who works for Capa Television in Paris, was kidnapped on Sunday while videotaping a US military convoy under attack.

Two US soldiers and seven employees of Kellogg, Brown and Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, have been missing since their convoy was attacked on Friday on the main highway west of Baghdad.

One of the missing, Thomas Hamill, 43, a truck driver, is known to have been abducted. His captors threatened to kill and mutilate him unless US troops ended the assault on Falluja. The deadline passed on Sunday with no word on his fate.

Today Russia will begin evacuating 816 people, including its citizens and people from other parts of the former Soviet Union, who were mostly involved in rebuilding the energy infrastructure.

The evacuation is a reaction to the kidnapping of three Russians and five Ukrainians on Monday night. They were released hours later, their captors apologising for their "mistake".

The ministry for emergency situations said that it had laid on seven flights to take 553 Russians and 263 citizens from the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Mr Berlusconi has from the outset been an enthusiastic supporter of the Bush administration's policy towards Iraq. But unlike Spain's former prime minister, José María Aznar, who also faced stiff domestic opposition to the invasion, he did not commit troops to the initial operation.

Last summer Mr Berlusconi sent an Italian peacekeeping force, which now numbers almost 3,000.

Despite deep-seated doubts, the main opposition in Italy has held back from demanding its withdrawal. In November, after a truck bomb killed 19 Italians at the Carabinieri's headquarters in southern Iraq, Italians were more resolved not to be intimidated into a hasty withdrawal.

Mr Frattini said Mr Quattrocchi and two of the Italian hostages - Maurizio Agliana, 35, from Prato in Tuscany and Umberto Cupertino, 35, from Bari in Puglia - were employees of a Nevada-based security firm called DTS Llc. The fourth man, Salvatore Stefio, 34, was president of a company called Presidium.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaK%2Bfp7mle5FpZ21nkaW%2FcH2UaKCtmZyue6q%2BwKo%3D