Slain hostage Fabrizio Quattrocchi’s brother David at his home in Genoa, northern Italy. (Reuters)

Rome, April 15 (Reuters): The killing of a hostage in Iraq provoked horror and outrage in Italy today as politicians closed ranks around the government’s commitment to keep troops in Iraq.

Italy confirmed the killing of Fabrizio Quattrocchi late yesterday, by kidnappers who, al Jazeera TV said, threatened to kill three other Italian hostages who worked with him for a US private security firm unless Italy withdrew its troops from the US-led coalition in Iraq. But Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed not to give in and to keep Italian forces in Iraq. “They have destroyed a life. They have not cracked our values and our efforts for peace,” he said.

The national trauma at least temporarily unified Italy, which has been bitterly divided by his support for the war. “We must not recall our troops because a band of assassins have demanded it,” Francesco Rutelli, leader of a Centre-Left Opposition party, said.

“Horror in Iraq, one Italian hostage killed,” newspaper Corriere della Sera said in a headline. “Shot in the neck in front of his own grave,” said Left-wing daily La Repubblica. Commentators expressed outrage at the killings as well as shock at the way the announcement of the death was made. Foreign minister Franco Frattini confirmed al Jazeera’s report of a death during a live TV chat show but it took more than two hours for anguished relatives to receive confirmation of which bodyguard had been killed.

Some relatives of the bodyguards were on the chat show, while others had journalists in their houses. Papers described the agony of the hostages’ families as they waited to learn who had died. “I am too upset and can’t say anything,” said Carmelo Nicolosi, father-in-law of hostage Salvatore Stefio. “I feel awful.” Salvatore’s father, Angelo Stefio, said: “We must stop this war. I will leave my house holding high the Italian flag.” Frattini said Quattrocchi was hooded when his kidnappers put a gun to his head. “When the murderers were pointing a pistol at him, this man tried to take off his hood and shouted: ‘Now I’m going to show you how an Italian dies’. And they killed him,” Frattini said. “He died a hero.”