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Italian seized in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - Gunmen seized an Italian journalist in central Baghdad on Friday, waiting outside a mosque where she was covering a sermon, then sweeping her into a car in a hail of gunfire, officials and colleagues said.

Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist for the newspaper Il Manifesto, was seized in the street near the Baghdad University compound, after interviewing refugees from Fallujah living in the neighborhood, then going to the mosque's prayers, said colleague Barbara Schiavulli.

Schiavulli said she received a call from Sgrena's cell phone while the kidnapping was apparently under way.

"I couldn't hear anyone talking ... I heard people shooting" and the sound of people splashing through puddles, Schiavulli said.

Repeated calls to Sgrena's cell phone went unanswered, until a final call, when someone didn't speak, then hung up, Schiavulli said.

The Italian government said it believed Sunni Arab militants might be behind the kidnapping. Premier Silvio Berlusconi said "negotiations have been set in motion," and officials suggested Sunni leaders in Iraq had been approached to help.

A statement posted on two Islamic militant Web sites in the name of the little-known Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility for Sgrena's kidnapping and gave the Italians 72 hours to withdraw their troops from Iraq. It did not say what would happen after the time passed.

The statement included no picture of the victim or other evidence that the claim was genuine. An official at the Italian Foreign Ministry said authorities were looking into the claim but said they were "far from taking it too seriously."

More than 190 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq over the past year. At least 13 remain in the hands of their captors, more than 30 were killed and the rest were freed or escaped.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - After months of strident rejection of the elections in Iraq, two top groups from the minority Sunni Muslim population said Friday that they would join in drafting the nation's constitution.

If the groups participate - there have been many past reversals - it would be a significant step toward bringing Sunnis into the political process and stemming sectarian divides that could cause civil unrest.

The insurgency, however, continued to show that it didn't wish to join the fold. Gunmen stormed a Shiite Muslim mosque in north Baghdad, tackled and bound the guards and placed three homemade bombs inside.

The two that detonated didn't kill anyone but did tear apart a prayer room and leave a clear message: "They want to start a civil war," said the mosque imam, or spiritual leader, Bassim al Waeli.

The American military announced that a soldier was killed and seven soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in northern Iraq.

Information from Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.

[Last modified February 5, 2005, 00:58:03]