ROME, March 4 -- U.S. troops near Baghdad fired on a car Friday night carrying an Italian journalist who had just been freed after a month in captivity, wounding her and another passenger and killing an Italian military intelligence officer, according to Italian and U.S. officials.
Giuliana Sgrena, 56, a reporter for the Communist daily newspaper Il Manifesto who had been taken hostage Feb. 4, underwent surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad to have shrapnel removed from her left shoulder, Italian officials said. News services later reported that Sgrena would be fit enough to travel to Italy on Saturday.
Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, center, listens to news of the release of Giuliana Sgrena with journalists at the Italian daily Il Manifesto.
(Domenico Stinellis -- AP)
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The dead military intelligence agent, identified as Nicola Calipari, had been engaged in negotiations to free Sgrena, and he threw his body over her to save her when the car carrying them to Baghdad International Airport came under fire, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said at a news conference here in Rome. The second wounded passenger was also an intelligence agent, Berlusconi said.
Berlusconi said he had summoned the American ambassador for an explanation, and he demanded that someone "take responsibility" for the shooting.
"It is a pity. This was a joyful moment which made all our co-citizens happy, which has been transformed into profound pain by the death of a person who behaved so bravely," Berlusconi said.
The Italian leader, a staunch ally of the Bush administration and its involvement in Iraq, said "disquieting questions" needed to be answered about the incident. "Several shots hit the car. One man was mortally wounded by a bullet," he said. "We are petrified and dumbfounded by this fatality."
In Washington, acting Undersecretary of State William Burns called the Italian ambassador to express condolences. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that "details are still unclear" but that "we regret the loss of life."
Accounts provided by U.S. military officials in Baghdad largely suggested that responsibility for the incident lay with the Italians. Marine Sgt. Salju Thomas, a military spokesman, said soldiers "fired on a vehicle approaching a checkpoint in Baghdad at a high rate of speed." Sgrena was being treated by coalition forces medical personnel, he added.
A few hours later, a statement from the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad said troops fired at a speeding car that "refused to stop at a checkpoint."
The statement said soldiers with the 3rd Infantry "killed one civilian and wounded two others when their vehicle traveling at high speeds refused to stop at a check point here today. About 9:00 pm, a patrol in western Baghdad observed the vehicle speeding towards their checkpoint and attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car. When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."
The statement did not explain how bullets fired into the engine block hit the passengers. It said the surviving intelligence agent "was treated by Army medics on the scene but refused medical evacuation for further assistance."
Finally, a State Department official in Washington said the Italians did not tell either the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or U.S. military commanders about Sgrena's release, even though a U.S. hostage coordinator had been working closely with them on the case.
The incident took place at Checkpoint 504-Camp Victory, near the Baghdad airport, the official said. The airport road has been the scene of numerous ambushes and car bombings. In addition, U.S. troops have fired in the past on cars approaching checkpoints in Iraq out of fear they might be carrying suicide bombers.
Before word of the shooting reached Rome in the early evening, news had already begun to filter out about Sgrena's release. Television cameras caught images of joyful hugging at Il Manifesto's Rome office and applause at the annual assembly of the Communist Refoundation Party. Gabriele Polo, Manifesto's editor, and Pier Scaroli, Sgrena's live-in partner, traveled to Chigi Palace to get details of Sgrena's expected arrival. While they were meeting, Berlusconi received a call from Baghdad telling him Sgrena had been wounded and agent Calipari killed.
