Muslim clerics raise hopes for Italian women hostages
Muslim scholars in Baghdad tonight expressed doubts that two Italian women aid workers had been murdered.
Earlier, a militant group had made its second claim in 24 hours on the internet that it had have beheaded Simona Pari and Simona Torretta.
Making the claim on a little known web site, the group, calling itself the Supporters of al-Zawahri, said: “The heads of the two criminal agents of Italian intelligence, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta have been chopped off by knife without pity or mercy.”
It added that “the video of cutting off the heads of the two Italian hostages will be issued soon”.
The claim was signed by Supporters of al-Zawahri, which was the first of two groups to claim responsibility for the Italians’ kidnapping on September 7.
A second militant group, the Islamic Jihad Organisation in Iraq, had also claimed to be holding the two women.
Tonight, a spokesman for the influential Association of Muslim Scholars said that Pari and Torretta were being held by a group that had no relation to the resistance in Iraq.
Speaking to journalists at the committee’s headquarters in Baghdad’s Umm al-Qura mosque, spokesman Muthana al-Dhari said he did not think the two women were dead “because the material gain from holding them is big“.
He added: “I have my doubts about the whole operation from the start because the style and method all indicate that the kidnappers are an organised gang with no connection to the resistance.”
His remarks appeared on the Aljazeera English website.
Italian news agency ANSA said intelligence services in Rome also believed the Internet site which posted the execution claim was not very reliable.
“These women have worked in Iraq for a long time and have served the Iraqi people so why would the insurgents target them or hurt them”
Pari and Torretta were snatched from their office in a quiet neighbourhood of Baghdad on 7 September.
Al-Dhari said the motive behind the kidnapping of the two women was inconsistent with the goals of the insurgency, which has claimed in several statements that it would only go after those cooperating with and aiding the US-led occupation.
Pari and Torretta were working for the Italian charity Un Ponte Per Baghdad (Bridge to Baghdad) which has been a long-standing opponent of Western policy towards Iraq.
The group campaigned vigorously against the crippling UN sanctions enforced against Iraq from its 1990 invasion of Kuwait right up to last year.
The Italian government has urged ”maximum caution” in assessing claims that the two women have been killed.
It suggested the communiqués could be part of a terrorism campaign through the media.
