Italian Journalists, Under Threat, Are Leaving Iraq

Italy’s foreign correspondents in Iraq left or were leaving the country Tuesday after Rome warned of threats against the media and urged them to return home, a Foreign Ministry official said.

“They have all left or they are in the process of doing so,” the official said, adding that he believed about 20 Italian journalists had been in Iraq at the end of last month.

The decision was made more than two weeks after Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was abducted by gunmen in Baghdad.

Another Italian journalist, Enzo Baldoni, was kidnapped and killed in August.

An official at the Italian Embassy in Baghdad said Monday that fresh threats had been made against four journalists.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of President Bush’s key allies in the Iraq war, said the journalists had been urged to quit the country based on information from Italian intelligence services.