Italy's government tried to reassure an anguished nation yesterday that two women hostages in Iraq were probably still alive, saying an Islamic group's claim to have killed them was "unreliable". The government moved swiftly after a militant group calling itself the Jihad Organisation said in a statement it had killed the women because Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had not bowed to demands to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq. The Speaker of the lower house of parliament, Pierferdinando Casini, told MPs that the government believed the claims were "unreliable" and was treating them with "total suspicion". A government statement urged caution, saying there was "nothing to corroborate" the claims and adding that it could be an attempt to "use the media for terrorism".
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