A group calling itself the Mujahideen Brigades in Iraq claimed to have killed the Italian journalist kidnapped last week in Baghdad, Italian media reported on Tuesday.

But the authenticity of the claim, made through an Internet website, was judged doubtful by observers in Italy and the Arab world.

Giuliana Sgrena, a 57-year-old reporter for the Italian leftist daily Il Manifesto, was seized last Friday afternoon while driving away from a mosque near Baghdad where she had been interviewing Sunni Muslims.

The announcement of Sgrena's death appeared on an Islamic website on Tuesday morning, accompanied by a statement saying she had been proved to be a spy working for US forces.

The name of the group was different from the Organization of the Jihad, which first claimed responsibility for Sgrena's abduction.

The Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome declined to comment on the announcement of Sgrena's death, saying that none of the messages which had appeared on websites in recent days could be trusted.

 A top terrorism expert in Cairo, reached by Italian News Agency Ansa by phone, also said he thought the latest claim was bogus.
 
(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2005)