A little-known Iraqi group said today it had taken an Italian female 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.
Ms Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist with the communist Rome newspaper Il Manifesto, was snatched from the street as she conducted interviews near Baghdad University.
Gunmen pulled up alongside her vehicle, forced her driver and an Iraqi journalist out at gunpoint and drove off with Sgrena, police sources said.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Italy was already working to negotiate her release and he was going to meet the interior and defence ministers later.
"The capture of the Italian journalist is a message to the Italian government led by Berlusconi that you will not know security as long as there is any Italian soldier in Iraq," the statement, dated today, said.
