A US military spokesman said a helicopter had flown Nawaf's body to the city of Qaim on Monday where his family had identified him.

No details are available about how the governor was killed.

He was kidnapped on 10 May. A group claiming to have seized him said it would hold him captive until US troops pulled back from Qaim.

Meanwhile four Americans and four Italians were separate incidents of plane crash in Iraq Monday night and Tuesday morning. The Americans along with an Iraqi were killed when an Iraqi Air Force plane went down in eastern Iraq on Monday, a spokesman for Iraq's Defense Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

The plane, a six-seater Comp Air turbo-prop usually used for reconnaissance, went down near the town of Jalawla, 150 km northeast of Baghdad, near the Iranian border. It is believed to have crashed in a sandstorm, the spokesman said.

"All five on board were killed -- an American and an Iraqi officer and three other Americans," he said.

The US military in Baghdad said it had no further information beyond a statement it released late on Monday saying an aircraft with four US military personnel and an Iraqi on board had crashed in eastern Iraq.

It is believed to be the first Iraqi Air Force plane to have crashed since the Air Force was re-established in April 2004, following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The new Iraqi Air Force has a small fleet of surveillance planes, several C-130 transporters and more than a dozen helicopters.

The Italian army announced yesterday that four Italians were killed in southern Iraq when their military helicopter crashed during the night near the city of Nasiriyah, where Italian troops are based.

It said in a statement that the helicopter, based at Tallil airport, "came down overnight for reasons that remain to be determined."

The crash happened about 20 kilometres southeast of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, it added.

The soldiers were aged between 29 and 39.

The helicopter was returning to base after dropping off an Italian soldier at Kuwait City who was returning home for family reasons, the army said.

"Shortly after take-off from Camp Buehring base, where the aircraft stopped for refuelling, radio contact was lost." The wreckage was found several hours later.

Their deaths bring to 24 the number of Italians killed since Rome deployed some 3,000 troops to Iraq in June 2003 as part of a US-led military coalition.

The highest single death toll was a November 2003 truck bombing that killed 17 soldiers and two civilians.