AP Statement on video and photos from
Dec. 16, 2004
From The Associated Press, Corporate Communications
Some blogs are asserting that AP photographed and videotaped
an execution of an Italian man named Salvatore Santoro near
Ramadi, Iraq, in December of 2004. This is not true. The man
was already dead by the time anyone working for The Associated
Press was brought to see him. The photographs of the dead
body, taken by Bilal Hussein, and the captions transmitted
with those photos, appear below the following AP story filed
on Dec. 16, 2004. This AP story explains that masked insurgents
stopped Hussein and other AP journalists, including an AP
video journalist, at a roadblock and took them to the site
where the blindfolded body lay, already stiff with rigor mortis.
They propped the body up and allowed the journalists to photograph
and videotape it.
----
12/16/2004
Iraqi militants say they shot Italian who tried to break through
checkpoint
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi militants said they shot and killed
an Italian citizen after he tried to break through a guerrilla
roadblock on a highway outside the insurgent stronghold of
Ramadi.
Masked gunmen took three Iraqi journalists to a location in
the desert outside Ramadi on Wednesday and showed them the
blindfolded body, one of the journalists recounted.
Photos showed the body of the man in jeans and a leather jacket,
a white rag tied around his eyes, propped up on a sandy incline.
Two masked gunmen posed with their automatic rifles pointed
at the body.
An Italian passport and Lebanese residency permit that the
gunmen displayed identified the man as Salvatore Santoro,
and a document from the Italian Embassy in Beirut seeking
an Iraqi visa for the man called him an aid worker helping
Iraqi children.
The journalists, who provide text, photos and video to The
Associated Press, said they were told by the militants that
the man had tried to run the roadblock on Monday, hit and
killed one of the gunmen, then crashed the car. The gunmen
said they then "executed" the man.
The militants stood next to a banner identifying them as members
of the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Mujahideen. One told the
journalists that the slaying was "a present to Berlusconi's
stupidity" -- referring to Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi, a close U.S. ally who has sent troops to Iraq.
"We have warned all foreigners in the past against entering
Iraq, especially those from countries which took part in occupying
our country," he said.
Berlusconi said Thursday he was waiting for news on reports
that an Italian had been killed by extremists in Iraq.
"I am in continuous contact with (my office in Rome),"
Berlusconi said, speaking in Brussels where he was attending
a European Union summit. "We are waiting for clarifications
that have not arrived yet," he said.
The Italian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it was investigating
to determine whether the victim was the 52-year-old Santoro,
a longtime resident of Britain. The ministry said in a statement
that Italian officials were not aware Santoro was in Iraq.
The letter requesting the visa displayed with the body said
Santoro was working for a humanitarian aid group called Contact.
One of the journalists said gunmen stopped them at a roadblock
Wednesday evening about 30 miles northwest of Ramadi. After
accepting them as journalists, he said a group of about 30
fighters drove them in another car to the body's location
about 10 minutes away.
After allowing the journalists to photograph the body, the
gunmen brought the three back to the checkpoint and allowed
them to leave, the journalist said. The journalists asked
not to be identified for reasons of security. They did not
know what the gunmen did with the body after they left.
A Foreign Ministry statement said the last contact that Santoro
had with Italian diplomats was at the Italian Embassy in Amman,
Jordan, between Dec. 6 and 8.
In London, the Charity Commission, which regulates charities
in Britain, said Santoro approached it in October seeking
to register an organization named "Contact," apparently
reviving a group of the same name that had once been registered
but was removed in 1993 because it ceased to exist.
"We issued Mr. Santoro with application forms but we
did not hear further from him. We have no records of the original
Contact," the commission said in a statement.
See
AP photographer Bilal Hussein's four photos below.
Insurgents stand
next to a body they claim to be that of Italian national Salvatore
Santoro, 52, in the desert outside Ramadi, Iraq, Wednesday
Dec. 15, 2004. The statement by the group identifying itself
as the Islamic Movement of Iraq's Mujahedeen said it was announcing
the killing of an Italian citizen. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A body which insurgents
claim to be that of Italian national Salvatore Santoro, 52,
in the desert outside Ramadi, Iraq, Wednesday Dec. 15, 2004.
The statement by the group identifying itself as the Islamic
Movement of Iraq's Mujahedeen said it was announcing the killing
of an Italian citizen. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
