Reuters: Kidnapped Italian's Afghan driver killed -report

[Eugene]

Kidnapped Italian's Afghan driver killed -report
16 Mar 2007 08:52:10 GMT
Source: Reuters

ROME, March 16 (Reuters) - One of two Afghan nationals kidnapped
with Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo in Afghanistan last week
has been killed, Italy's ANSA news agency said on Friday, quoting a
Taliban fighter.

"His throat was slit at 7 a.m. because he was confirmed to be a spy
for foreign military forces," ANSA quoted Ibrahim Hanifi as saying.
The dead man is believed to have been Mastrogiacomo's driver.

Hanifi also said the Italian and the other Afghani, the reporter's
translator, would be released if the Afghan government agreed to
release three Taliban prisoners.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said it was trying to verify the report and
could make no further comment at this stage.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16563378.htm

[maddezmom]

1. Freed Italy reporter saw Afghan driver's beheading

Freed Italy reporter saw Afghan driver's beheading
20 Mar 2007 09:02:57 GMT
Source: Reuters
More ROME, March 20 (Reuters) - The Italian reporter who was held by the Taliban for nearly two weeks described on Tuesday how he was forced to watch the beheading of his Afghan driver.

"I can still see it now," Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was released on Monday, wrote in La Repubblica, his newspaper.

"The (Taliban) commander issued his death sentence in the name of Islam. He said we were all spies and we had to die," Mastrogiacomo writes.

"(The translator) is crying. I don't understand. I ask him what they said and he, in tears, says 'they are going to kill us'," he writes.

"I get off my knees. Four young men grab the driver and shove his face into the sand. They cut his throat and continue until they have cut his whole head."

more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20732579.htm