Iraqi Militants Kill Italian Hostage

The execution could further heighten fears among international aid workers, contractors and journalists, some of whom are already restricting their activities in Iraq.

Earlier Wednesday, a French journalist was freed after a four-day hostage ordeal and Russia announced it would evacuate its citizens. Reports said two more Japanese freelance journalists were kidnapped outside Baghdad.

The militants who killed the Italian hostage demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and threatened to kill the three other hostages, Al-Jazeera reported. The Qatar-based TV network reported that it had video of the killing but said it was too graphic to broadcast. Al-Jazeera did show footage of four Italian security guards sitting on the ground, holding up their passports and surrounded by armed men.

The four Italian security guards were abducted Monday. The militants' videotape was accompanied by a statement from a previously unknown group, the Green Battalion. It said it would "kill the three remaining Italian hostages one after the other, if their demands are not met," Al-Jazeera said. The group demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, an apology from Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi and the release of religious clerics held in Iraq.

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The Italian ambassador to Qatar watched the video and confirmed the man killed was Fabrizio Quattrocchi, one of the kidnapped Italians, Italian Foreign Minister Franco

Frattini said. Frattini said the government would do "what is possible and impossible" to free the remaining three.

Three of the Italian captives were working for a U.S.-based company while a fourth was employed by a Seychelles-based firm, Frattini said. He stressed that the four Italian hostages were not members of Italian intelligence, and that the abductors were "terrorists and killers" who were "out of control", not members of any organized resistance.

Italian Prime Minister Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who has ruled out pulling out Italian troops from Iraq, said, "They have cut short a life. They have not damaged our values and our commitment to peace."

Italy is the third-largest coalition partner in the occupation force. Italy didn't send in combat troops during the war. Its forces are based in the southern city of Nasiriyah, working on reconstruction.

In November of last year, Italy suffered tragic losses when a suicide truck bomb attack in Nasiriyah, a city in southern Iraq, killed 19 Italians, Italy's worst single military loss since World War II.

A U.S. spokesman said Tuesday that 40 foreigners from 12 countries are being held by kidnappers but an Associated Press count put the number at 22, with Wednesday's release of the French journalist and the death of the Italian hostage.