Italy backs Nigerian militant group’s hostage killing claims

PanARMENIAN.Net - Italy's government says it believes a Nigerian militant group's claims to have killed seven foreign hostages it seized last month, BBC News reported.

The hostages - from Italy, Britain, Greece and Lebanon - were captured in a raid on a construction site in the northern state of Bauchi. The Greek foreign ministry says it believes its national is dead.

In an online statement posted on Saturday, the militant group Ansaru said it had killed the captives. The group, which emerged last year, is suspected of being an offshoot of the Boko Haram Islamist network.

Ansaru said the hostages were killed because of a rescue attempt by British and Nigerian forces.

But in its statement, the Italian government said: "There was never any military attempt to rescue the hostages by any of the governments concerned." It added that the group's actions "can have no explanation other than blind and barbaric violence".

The seven hostages were seized in a raid from a site belonging to the Setraco company. It also resulted in the death of a guard.

Ansaru said it had carried out the kidnapping in revenge for what it called atrocities by European nations against Islam. The group has been listed by the UK government as a "terrorist organisation" aligned with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.