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Italian journalist held hostage in Iraq Claire Cozens and agencies Tuesday August 24, 2004 Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, who has been missing in Iraq since last week, has been kidnapped by militants, according to a video broadcast today on al-Jazeera television station. His driver was found dead at the weekend in Najaf and today an Islamist group said it had abducted an Italian in Iraq, giving Silvio Berlusconi 48 hours to announce it was pulling his troops out of the country.

I was lying on my bed in a hotel room in Basra when the whole world changed. Approaching midnight on August 12, I became the first British civilian to be kidnapped in Iraq. A few hours later, after having been dragged out of the hotel at gunpoint, my worst nightmare had come true. I stood there, sweating and shaking with fear, surrounded by a dozen Iraqi militants and, most ominously, a man holding a video camera. The youngest of the kidnappers eagerly donned a black balaclava and stood beside me, brandishing a gun, both of us knowing that the rituals...

BASRA, Iraq - Militants in the southern city of Basra on Friday released a British journalist they had kidnapped and threatened to kill after aides to militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded he be freed.

British journalist James Brandon was tonight recovering at a British base in Basra after he was released by Iraqi militants 24 hours after he was kidnapped and threatened with execution. The 23-year-old, of London, was released from captivity this afternoon, a day after he was snatched from his hotel in the southern city yesterday. It is believed he was freed following the intervention of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Mr Brandon’s mother Hilary confirmed that he is in good spirits. Insurgents had earlier insisted Mr Brandon would be killed if American troops did not pull out of the holy...

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi militants kidnapped a British journalist in the southern city of Basra and threatened to kill him if a U.S. assault on the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf was not halted in 24 hours, witnesses and a video tape showed on Friday. The witnesses said gunmen seized the journalist from a hotel in mainly Shi'ite Basra. Hours later a video tape released in the city showed a hooded gunman standing next to the journalist and threatening to kill him if the attack on Najaf was not stopped.

A BRITISH journalist was abducted from his hotel in the southern city of Basra, Iraqi police said today. About 30 gunmen, including some dressed as police, stormed the Diyafah Hotel in Basra on Thursday, CaptainHashem Abdullah said. Hotel owner Mohammed Uglah said gunmen found the man, reportedly a journalist for The Sunday Telegraph of London, and shot him twice in the leg before taking him away.