Iraqi militants have killed the abducted Italian journalist, Enzo Baldoni, after his country refused to withdraw its troops from the war torn country, Arabic television channel Al Jazeera reports.
The station said it received a video that showed Baldoni being killed. The channel, however, refused to broadcast it citing 'sensitivity of its viewers'.
"Judging from the recording we received, it seems that the hostage takers carried out their threat to kill their hostage," Al Jazeera's spokesman Jihad Ballout said. The video also showed Baldoni after he was killed.
Ballout declined to say how Baldoni was killed, but said the video contained 'unsavory visuals'.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi condemned the reported killing, but said Italian troops would remain in Iraq.
"There are no words to describe this inhuman act that with one blow wipes out centuries of civilization to bring us back to the dark ages of barbarity," Berlusconi said in a statement. "We will be faithful to the commitments taken with the Iraqi provisional government."
The Italian foreign ministry had reported Baldoni missing Friday and said he was believed to be in Najaf, site of heavy fighting.
Baldoni, a part-time journalist whose main job was that of an advertising copy writer, went to Iraq for the news magazine Diario.
