Italian hostages freed in Iraq

Rome - Three Italians held hostage in Iraq for almost two months have been freed along with a Polish contractor, Italy's foreign minister has said.

Franco Frattini told state television on Tuesday the Italian hostages -- Salvatore Stefio, Umberto Cupertino and Maurizio Agliana -- were in good health and traveling to the airport in Baghdad before returning to Italy.

He said they were freed as a result of a military operation by coalition forces near the Iraqi capital. No one was hurt, he said, adding that no deal had been cut for the release of the hostages.

A Polish official confirmed that the Polish citizen was freed in an operation staged by coalition special forces. He was transported to the Polish Embassy in Baghdad.

CNN's Rome Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was informed of the release of the three Italians, who were kidnapped, as he flew to the United States for the G-8 summit.

"The plane erupted into applause," Vinci reported. "This is a huge relief for the government."

He added that Italian television channels made a rare break into their normal programming to inform viewers of the news on Tuesday.

Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Boguslaw Majewski said American forces freed the hostages, but he gave no further details, according to The Associated Press.

A fourth Italian hostage, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, was executed by a gunshot to the head soon after the group was kidnapped on April 12. A grisly videotape of the execution, which shocked Italy, was given to Al-Jazeera but never broadcast.

Arabic-language television network Al-Arabiya later aired a video of the three Italian men weeks sitting around a table eating.

After the execution of Quattrocchi a written statement from a group calling itself the Green Brigades gave Italians five days to organize demonstrations calling for Berlusconi's government to withdraw troops from Iraq. Otherwise, it said, the hostages would be killed.

Thousands of Italians -- most of whom opposed their country's participation in the war that overthrew Iraqi President Saddam Hussein -- later marched in Rome, but relatives of the hostages stressed the demonstration was not a call to withdraw troops. -- CNN News

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