Three Italian hostages freed by US-led special forces in Iraq returned home after nearly two months of captivity to emotional scenes yesterday, boosting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi before European elections.

But it emerged the three learned only after their rescue on Tueday that a colleague had been killed by the heavily armed kidnappers two days after all four civilian security guards were seized on April 12.

Maurizio Agliana, Umberto Cupertino, Salvatore Stefio said at a debriefing with Italian investigators the kidnappers told them they had freed Fabrizio Quattrocchi, judicial sources said.

The kidnappers issued a video tape at the time to an Arabic television station claiming responsibility for killing Mr Quattrocchi after Italy rejected their demands to withdraw its 2,700 troops from Iraq.

"We're home, we're home," Mr Agliana shouted as his sister Antonella ran across the tarmac at Rome's Ciampino airport to embrace him. "I feel great, and now that I've touched him I feel even better," she said.

Mr Stefio's father Angelo fell to his knees on the tarmac before embracing his son and handing over a large Italian flag he had kept flying from the balcony of his home since the hostages were seized.

"Now we're ready to have a big party," he told reporters. The trio, who worked in Iraq for a US security firm and looked relaxed in T-shirts, did not make any public statements about their captivity.

But Alessandro Cevese, head of the Foreign Ministry's crisis unit, told reporters: "They were not treated particularly well. They slept on the ground and they were locked in a bathroom for some days."

Mr Cevese said at one point the kidnappers demanded Mr Stefio hand over his wedding ring but he refused, challenging them with the words: "Go ahead and shoot me."

The militants managed to take his ring nonetheless, Mr Cevese said.

He said Mr Quattrocchi was probably killed because he had an identity card issued by US-led occupation authorities.