Women Hostages Seized in Baghdad Raid

The abduction today of two Italian women in Baghdad may prove to be the biggest test to date for Italy and the Coalition of the Willing.

Armed to the teeth, the kidnappers beat up a hapless guard, dragged a screaming Iraqi hostage by her hair and took off in broad daylight.

Two Italian women — Simona Pari and Simona Torretta — and an Iraqi man were also abducted when 20 gunmen stormed a Baghdad villa housing the headquarters of two Italian humanitarian organisations today without firing a single bullet.

The unusual abduction of women is likely to further alarm foreigners already on edge from widespread kidnappings.

Per al-Jazeera, it appears that these two women were specifically targetted by the terrorists.

Iraqi journalist Abd Allah Khudair told Aljazeera: “The operation only took five minutes.”

“A three-car force broke into the organisation’s building and tied the hands of one of the staff and threw the others on the floor”.

“The militants asked the names of the staff until they reached Simona Pari and the office head, Simona Torretta, who were captured by the militants,” Khudair added.

At this point, any particular significance of these two is unknown, but the abduction immediately sent the Italian government scurrying.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was to return to Rome on Tuesday for an emergency cabinet meeting following the reported kidnapping of two Italian women in Iraq, officials said.

Berlusconi, currently in northern Italy, was immediately informed of the abduction of the two, who were working for the Italian charity Un Ponte Per Baghdad (Bridge to Baghdad) in the Iraqi capital.

A top Berlusconi aide has called an emergency meeting of all ministers concerned to discuss the situation in Iraq following the kidnapping of the women, who have been identified as Simona Pari and Simona Torretta.

….

Italy, a strong supporter for the US-led war in Iraq, is still recovering from the execution of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni.

The kidnapped reporter was murdered on August 26 after Rome refused to bow to demands from the militant group to pull its troops out of the country.

This was a bold and dangerous move by the terrorists, and there may eventually be no winners in this game. After all, change the nationality and this becomes the possible nightmare scenario that is still looming over the U.S. military after women were allowed on, over or near the battlefield.

There are many possible ways this can play out for all involved:

• The terrorists risk an immediate backlash from the muslim community for involving civilian women
• The Italian government may have to make some hard choices — bail out of the war, deal with the scumbags, or stand firm and risk the lives of women, possibly leading to an upheaval on the home front
• If Italy stands firm, the terrorists may execute the women, but this will almost certainly have a tremendous negative fallout in the Islamic world
• It’s a crapshoot how Italy and some other nations would react to such an execution — knuckle under or come out guns a’blazing
• The U.S. is forced to ride a razor’s edge here, capable of little (barring a storybook rescue), with much potentially gained and much potentially disastrously lost.

A zero-sum game? Who knows? Perhaps a quick release is the only way to prevent losses for all involved. I’m not even going to pretend to predict the effect of execution videos hitting the internet in this case. My best hopes go out for these women, and the civilized world better pay close attention to how this one unfolds.