Italian aid workers and Egyptian freed in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two female Italian aid workers kidnapped in the Iraqi capital three weeks ago were released, as well as an Egyptian among a group of telecom employees snatched last week.
The Italian authorities kept the release secret until Simon Pari and Simona Torretta were already on their way back home, after being turned over to the Italian Red Cross.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi himself confirmed the release of the two young women kidnapped on September 7 from the office of their aid organisation "A Bridge to Baghdad" and described it as a "moment of joy".
"I have just rung their families to tell them," he told a news conference in Rome.
There was no word from the hostages themselves -- who were expected to arrive in Rome later Tuesday -- but officials in Rome said two Iraqis kidnapped with the Italians were also released.
It was not known whether a ransom had been paid.
Earlier Tuesday, the Union of Italy`s Islamic Communities and Organisations and Jordan`s Islamist opposition urged the captors of the two women to release them.
It was never clear who detained Pari, Torretta and the two Iraqis. Their capture was claimed by two organisations, while several statements about their fate posted on websites were dismissed as not serious by the Italian authorities.
An Egyptian and two Iraqis captured last week were also released, a spokesman for their employer, telecom giant Orascom, told AFP Tuesday.
Five other Egyptians working for the same company were kidnapped in Baghdad and in western Iraq last week. Their fate remains unknown.
No groups has publicly claimed the kidnappings of the Orascom employees, but their seizure came amid a spate of hostage-takings that have seen nearly 150 foreigners abducted mainly by Islamic militant groups.
The news of the releases came a day after an Iranian diplomat captured two months ago by an extremist Islamic group also holding two French reporters was also freed.
But the life of British hostage Kenneth Bigley still hung in the balance, as nothing appeared to have come out of a visit to Iraq by a British Muslim delegation aimed at securing the release of the 62-year-old engineer.
He is detained by the Tawhid wal Jihad group of top US foe Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, which already decapitated the two US colleagues kidnapped with him in Baghdad 10 days ago.
Bigley`s brother, Paul, said Monday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had intervened on behalf of the captive engineer and criticised Prime Minister Tony Blair for not taking a strong stand to free his brother.
At the annual conference of his Labour Party, Blair refused to apologise Tuesday for the Iraq war, as he linked the future of Iraq to Britain`s national security.
"I can`t, sincerely at least, apologise for removing Saddam. The world is a better place with Saddam in prison, not in power," Blair told delegates to a round of applause.
The insurgent enclave of Fallujah, where many of the foreign hostages are believed to have been held, was again pounded by US aircraft overnight.
"Three people were killed and six others wounded," said Dr Rafaa Hiad at the town`s main hospital.
A US military spokesman denied the strike had caused any casualties, although the US-led coalition has no forces in the town since abandoning a month-long siege earlier this year.
He said the raid again targeted suspected hideouts of militants loyal to US archfoe Zarqawi, who is responsible for scores of deadly anti-coalition attacks and kidnappings.
In the capital, explosions rocked the Sunni Muslim Haifa Street area, while US helicopter gunships struck the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City, one of Baghdad`s mostly densely populated neighbourhoods.
In southern Iraq, two British soldiers were killed in a rare ambush of a military convoy in this area, that overshadowed the Labour Party conference.
The south is overwhelmingly Shiite, and it was not immediately clear if the attackers were Sunni insurgents or Shiite militiamen.
They ambushed a three-vehicle British army convoy southwest of the main southern city of Basra, a defence ministry spokesman said in London.
Hospital officials in Basra said at least two Iraqi bystanders were injured.
The renewed fighting underscored concerns raised by Jordan`s King Abdullah II about the possibility of holding elections in January as planned.
The king, who delayed his own parliamentary elections for two years, told the Paris daily Le Figaro: "It appears to me impossible to organise indisputable elections in the chaos currently reigning in Iraq."
His remarks followed warnings from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and comments by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that the insurgency was growing more dangerous as the election target date nears.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility last week that the polls might go ahead in most of Iraq, leaving out the regions most affected by the violence.
But critics argue that polls in which some areas are disenfranchised would not be the sort of "indisputable elections" talked about by the Jordanian king.
Addressing a UN symposium on reconstruction in Amman, Iraq`s interim planning minister Mehdi Hafez also complained that an international drive to rebuild his war-shattered country has been discouraging because billions of dollars pledged have not been spent.
"The international community pledged at the Madrid conference to give generous donations but what has been accomplished so far did not match our expectations," Hafez said.