Italy doubts the killing of its two hostages

Sources close to the Italian government presidency said that the Italian authorities have no information confirming reports that the two Italian women held in Iraq Simona Bari and Simona Torita were killed. The same sources called for highest caution in dealing with this information.

The Italian news agency said that the Italian intelligence departments consider a website which published the statement as not trust worthy.

In contrary to other hostage cases, no pictures or video tape were shown for the two Italian women kidnapped since more than one week.

One Islamic group in Iraq announced in a statement issued on the Internet it had killed the two Italian hostages.

The group which calls itself "al-Jihad organization in Iraq" said it had killed the two women after Italy had ignored its demands to withdrawing its forces from Iraq.