Italian officials have confirmed an Al-Jazeera report that Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni has been executed by his Iraqi captors, the 19th journalist to die in the country since the beginning of the year.
Baldoni, identified as an ad copywriter in Iraq to work on a book and to freelance, was the 12th journalist abducted in Iraq in 2004, but the first to have been executed. He was also working for the Red Cross, according to the committee.
His abductors had threatened to kill him unless Italy withdrew its troops from the country.
Most recently, U.S. documentary producer Micah Garen and his translator, Amir Doushi, were released Aug. 22 after having been kidnapped Aug. 13. A pair of French journalists remain unaccounted for.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the killing of Baldoni as "senseless and reprehensible."
Al-Jazeera received a videotape showing Baldoni's body, but chose not to air it.
