ROME, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- A giant portrait of Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian journalist kidnapped in Baghdad, hung from Rome's City Hall during a weekend demonstration for her release.
Sgrena was seized by gunmen Friday along a street in Sadr City, Baghdad's teeming Shiite Muslim slum. She had gone there to interview refugee children from Falluja.
The militant group Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility on an Arabic website, demanding the withdrawal of Italian forces in Iraq as a condition for her release. Italy has approximately 2,000 troops deployed in Iraq.
Sgrena is a reporter for the left-wing paper Il Manifesto. Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini told the Arab satellite TV station Al Jazeera Sgrena was "a friend of Iraq."
Present at the demonstration were Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, the two international relief workers kidnapped in Baghdad last year and later released, apparently following successful negotiations by the Italian government.
