ITALY/AFGHANISTAN: Taliban free kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo after Kabul government releases rebels from jail

An Italian journalist kidnapped in Afghanistan by the Taliban two weeks ago has been freed, the Italian government said on Monday (March 19). Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who works for the newspaper La Repubblica, and two Afghan colleagues were seized in the lawless southern province of Helmand, where NATO and Afghan forces have launched an offensive against the Taliban. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Mastrogiacomo had been taken to hospital in Afghanistan run by the Italian medical charity Emergency. "He is in the Emergency hospital and is in good health. I hope that in a few days we will be able to embrace him," Prodi told reporters in Rome. The Taliban's military commander, Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location the reporter had been freed after Afghan authorities released five senior Taliban officials, including his own brother. The Taliban said on Sunday (March 18) they had handed over the journalist to tribal elders after Kabul freed two Taliban officials, but threatened to recapture him unless the Afghan government met all their demands.

ITN Source | March 20, 2007

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