By John. F. Burns
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Friday, Sept. 27 – The Arab news channel Al Jazeera reported early Friday that it had received a videotape from a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq showing the killing of an Italian journalist, Enzo Baldoni, who disappeared last week while traveling to Najaf. Italy’s Ansa news agency quoted Italian officials in Iraq as confirming the Al Jazeera report.
A spokesman for Al Jazeera, Jihad Ballout, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that the satellite network had received the tape showing the killing but decided against broadcasting it out of sensitivity for its viewers.
“To the best of our knowledge, it indicates that the hostage-takers carried out their threat,” Mr. Ballout said. The Italian Foreign Ministry told reporters in Rome that it was checking the report.
Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, condemned the killing, saying, “There are no words for an act lacking any humanity and which at a stroke cancels out centuries of civilization and takes us back to the dark ages of barbarity.”
The group that claimed to have carried out the killing, the Islamic Army, issued a statement shortly after Mr. Baldoni’s disappearance last Friday saying it could not guarantee his safety unless Italy withdrew its 3,000-member military contingent from Iraq within 48 hours.
The Italian government rejected the demand, saying it would keep its “civil and military” presence in Iraq. A subsequent Italian government statement, issued as the deadline neared, suggested that the Italian troops might be withdrawn if requested by Iraq’s interim government.
An American journalist and documentary filmmaker, Micah Garen, was freed by Islamic militants on Sunday, 10 days after he was taken hostage in the southern city of Nasiriya. In his case, the kidnappers made a similar demand, saying he would be killed unless American troops were withdrawn from Najaf within 48 hours.
Mr. Garen, 36, and his Iraqi interpreter were released after a Nasiriya cleric representing the Mahdi Army, the militia force that has battled American troops in Najaf, said Mr. Garen had done a “service” for Iraq with his investigation into the looting of antiquities at ancient sites near Nasiriya.
The cleric also cited a report filed by Mr. Garen in which he said he had film of an Iraqi ambulance being fired on by Italian troops in Nasiriya, killing a pregnant woman.
The French news agency Agence France-Presse quoted colleagues of Mr. Baldoni at the Milan-based news magazine Diario della Settimana as saying they were stunned by reports of his death.
“We were so optimistic,” Gianni Barbacetto, one of the magazine’s staff, said. “We couldn’t believe he wouldn’t get out.”
Mr. Baldoni, 56, was the 12th journalist this year to be kidnapped in Iraq, according to figures given by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Most have been freed, but two French reporters who also disappeared while driving to Najaf last week remain missing. They are Christian Chesnot, a reporter with Radio France Internationale, and Georges Malbrunot, a reporter with Le Figaro.
Mr. Baldoni appeared in a videotape broadcast by Al Jazeera after his disappearance saying that he had traveled to Iraq to write a book about the Iraqi resistance, and that he had worked as a volunteer for the Red Cross.
Colleagues in Italy said that he normally worked in advertising and copywriting and contributed articles to Diario della Settimana.