The hostage is named Giuliana Sgrena and works for Rome daily Il Manifesto. She was abducted as she conducted interviews near Baghdad University.

Update II: Terrorists claim abduction. Reuters:

A little-known Iraqi group said on Friday it had taken an Italian journalist hostage and set a 72 hour deadline for Italy to remove its troops, but did not make a specific threat to kill her, a Web statement said.
"We in the land of Islam, Iraq, give the Italian government 72 hours to get out of Iraq, otherwise the squadrons will have something else to say in the coming days," said a statement from the Islamic Jihad Organisation titled "about the imprisoning of the Italian journalist".

It was not possible to verify the statement, which first appeared on a site not used by the main Iraqi insurgent groups.

A group using the same name said in September it had killed two abducted Italian aid workers who were subsequently released by another group.

Reuters:

Gunmen have kidnapped an Italian journalist in Baghdad, the latest in a series of brazen abductions but the first since Iraq's election...

Gunmen pulled up alongside her vehicle, forced her driver and an Iraqi journalist with her out of the vehicle at gunpoint and then drove off with Sgrena, the sources said.

Gunmen seized an Italian woman journalist in Baghdad today in a hail of gunfire after she had been interviewing people who fled the US assault on the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah....

Italian radio journalist Barbara Schiavulli said Sgrena called her on her mobile phone while the assault was underway.

“I heard shots and people running but I did not hear her speak,” Schiavulli said. “I only heard pistol shots ... I heard shots and began to shout Giuliana, Giuliana, but she did not reply.”

Iraqi police said Sgrena was accompanied by two Iraqi reporters and an Iraqi driver when several armed men stopped their vehicle. The gunmen released the Iraqis and took Sgrena in her own car.

Guess where else her work has been published? Z-mag. Yes, the magazine for aging Communists run by Howard Zinn. Yes, that Howard Zinn.

My spidey senses are beginning to tingle here folks. Two possibilities:

a) She will be released after a concerted campaign to pressure the hostage takers to release her from Arab dicatators, Islamists, and European leftists. After all, when the Left pushes for the release of a hostage the Islamofascists listen. They would hate to lose their closes allies in the West.

b) Folks, there is something fishy about this.....on the phone as she's being abducted?

In either case expect a series of stories arising out of her ordeal in which she recounts the attrocities of the Americans in Iraq which forced the 'freedom fighters' to capture her.........

Developing.....

Several Italians have been abducted in Iraq, including two women. The two aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, were abducted on Sept. 7th by a group calling itself Ansar al Zawahiri. The group initially threatened to behead the two, but later they were released.

Two other Italian hostages were not so lucky. Salvatore Santoro was murdered by the Islamic Army in Iraq some time around December 16th. The terrorists delivered a video to al Jazeera, but the station deemed the footage too gruesome to air.

Enzo Baldoni was another Italian reporter who met the fate of so many hostages in Iraq. Baldoni was in Iraq with the Red Cross when he was abducted by the Islamic Army in Iraq. He was later murdered by that group because Italy refused to remove its troops from Iraq. Al Jazeera aired a tape of Baldoni shortly before he was murdered.

To the terrorists who have taken Giuliana Sgrena I say vaffanculo!!!

PS-Because of a DNS attack on the mu.nu domain, trackbacks have been temporarily disabled. Sorry. E-mail me and I'll manually link you.

Others on the case: Cranky Neocon, Chad Evans, Digger, Michele Catalano, TBTN, Hyscience, MVRWC, Spoons, .....

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