BAGHDAD, Iraq — Al-Jazeera satellite channel aired a tape yesterday that purported to show three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq and a fourth unidentified person, apparently an American.

The station said the four were held by an unnamed militant group and no demands were made.

The U.S. State Department said yesterday that a U.S. citizen was taken hostage with the three Romanians. However, the department gave no further information so there was no way of confirming if the American was also on the video.

Private Romanian television station Realitatea TV reported that an Iraqi American who worked as the journalists' translator was the fourth person kidnapped.

The video, which could not be independently verified, showed three men and a woman seated on the floor in a room, with blankets hung behind them. Two armed men — their faces covered with scarves — pointed guns at them.

On Tuesday, the Romanian government reported that three journalists were abducted a day earlier near their Baghdad hotel after interviewing Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. One victim used a cellphone to report the kidnapping.

The journalists were seized during a visit by Romanian President Traian Basescu to Afghanistan and Iraq — where U.S. ally Romania has sent 800 troops to join the U.S.-led force.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq and more than 30 have been killed.

Army captain says he put man out of misery

WIESBADEN, Germany — A U.S. Army tank-company commander told a military court yesterday that he shot a gravely wounded, unarmed Iraqi man "to put him out of his misery," saying the killing was "honorable."

Taking the stand for the first time, Capt. Rogelio "Roger" Maynulet, 30, described the events that led him to fire twice upon the Iraqi, maintaining that the man was too badly injured to survive.

"He was in a state that I didn't think was justified — I had to put him out of his misery," Maynulet said. He argued that the killing "was the right thing to do, it was the honorable thing to do."

Prosecutors at the court-martial say Maynulet violated military rules of engagement by shooting an Iraqi who was wounded and unarmed.

Maynulet is being court-martialed on a charge of assault with intent to commit murder in the May 21 killing near Kufa, south of Baghdad.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and his lawyers have argued that his actions were in line with the Geneva Conventions on the code of war.

Maynulet's 1st Armored Division tank company had been on patrol near Kufa when it was alerted to a car believed to be carrying a driver for radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and another militiaman loyal to the Shiite cleric.

They chased the vehicle and fired at it, wounding both the passenger, who fled and was later apprehended, and the driver. The killing was filmed by a U.S. drone surveillance aircraft.

Maynulet further testified that, as company commander, he had more important priorities on the mission than saving the Iraqi, including searching for two escaped passengers and maintaining the safety of his men.

Sharp decline reported in post-election attacks

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgent attacks have fallen dramatically since the Jan. 30 elections, and the number of U.S. deaths reported this month dropped to the lowest in a year.

Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, which has been tracking the insurgency, said attacks against U.S. forces have dropped by at least 25 percent since last fall, when U.S. officials launched a major offensive against the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. Attacks then ranged from 80 to 90 a day, O'Hanlon said.

However, attacks still haven't fallen below the level of a year ago — between 10 to 20 a day, according to a Defense Department document dated July 2004.

U.S. defense officials say they were down to 40 to 45 a day in recent weeks, lower than the pre-election average of 50 to 60 a day. The change was apparent after the elections, with the number of U.S. soldiers killed dropping from 58 in February to 30 in March — the lowest monthly death toll since 20 American soldiers were killed in February 2004, according to an Associated Press count.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance Smith said U.S. forces could begin coming home in significant numbers if insurgent violence is low through general elections scheduled for the end of the year.

A larger and more capable insurgency, setbacks in the efforts to develop Iraq security forces, or missed deadlines by the transitional government could delay any significant drawdown, said Smith, the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command.

Also yesterday, gunmen opened fire on more Shiite Muslim pilgrims making their way to a major religious festival in southern Iraq, killing one person.

Roads across Iraq were crowded with Shiites heading to the holy city of Karbala to celebrate the al-Arbaeen festival today. The holiday marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for one of Shiites' most important saints, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, Imam Hussein, who was killed in a seventh-century battle.