- An Italian aid worker in Iraq held captive and subsequently
freed has said guerrillas there were right to fight US-led forces and their
Iraqi "puppet government".
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- In comments that were bound to annoy Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi's government, Simona Torretta also called on Rome to withdraw
the troops it sent to Iraq to support its US ally.
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- "I said it before the kidnapping and I repeat it
today," she told Corriere della Sera newspaper in an interview published
on Friday.
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- "You have to distinguish between terrorism and resistance.
The guerrilla war is justified, but I am against the kidnapping of civilians."
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- Torretta and her Italian colleague Simona Pari, both
of them 29, were freed on Tuesday, three weeks after being snatched from
their Baghdad office.
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- Berlusconi has brushed aside widespread reports that
his government paid a ransom of up to $1 million.
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- Describing the administration of Iraqi Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi as "a puppet government in the hands of the Americans",
Torretta said elections planned for January would have no legitimacy: "During
my days in detention ... I came to the conclusion it will take decades
to put Iraq back on its feet."
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- Torretta, who lived in Iraq before, during and after
the US-led invasion, said she wanted to return despite her ordeal - but
would not do so as long as US troops were there: "I've got to wait
until the end of the US occupation," she said.
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- She said she did not know whether Italy bought her freedom
from the captors: "If a ransom was paid then I am very sorry. But
I know nothing about it ... I believe that (the captors) were a very political,
religious group and that in the end they were convinced that we were not
enemies."
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- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/487181C1-55
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