Vampires_Bite

Italian journalist hostage Giuliana Sgrena was freed from her Iraqi captors only to be shot and wounded by US troops firing at the convoy supposed to be carrying her to safety.

An Italian secret service agent who helped secure Sgrena's release was killed when he threw himself in front of her to protect her from the incoming bullets, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said.

The United States said a thorough investigation would be carried out into the incident, and President George Bush called Berlusconi personally to express his regrets, the White House said.

Bush called Berlusconi from Air Force One ''to express his regret about the incident that occurred earlier today'', the White House said in a statement.

''The President assured Prime Minister Berlusconi that the incident will be fully investigated.''

Sgrena has worked since 1988 for newspaper Il Manifesto, which opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The US military confirmed the incident, but said the Italian convoy speeding towards a checkpoint manned by US forces near Baghdad airport ignored signals to slow down and stop.

Berlusconi, a staunch ally of Bush, told a press conference in Rome there were ''disquieting questions'' that needed to be answered about the incident.

''Several shots hit the car. One man was mortally wounded by a bullet. We are petrified and dumbfounded by this fatality.''

Berlusconi said Sgrena had been hit in the left shoulder, and two other Italians agents had been wounded when their vehicle was raked by American gunfire.

Sgrena's newspaper, the Rome-based leftist daily Il Manifesto, said the 56-year-old journalist underwent lung surgery and that her life was not in danger.

Berlusconi said the dead agent had thrown his body in front of Sgrena to protect her from the shots.

''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.''

The US military said US soldiers who fired on a speeding vehicle waved their hands and arms, flashed white lights and fired warning shots in a failed attempt to get it to stop.

''When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others,'' the 3rd Infantry Division said in a statement.

ANSA said one of the two Italian agents wounded in the shooting was in a serious but stable condition after an operation to remove a bullet from one of his lungs. The other wounded agent had been released from hospital and taken to the Italian embassy.

''There's little to say. The Americans nearly killed her,'' Sgrena's companion Pier Scolari was quoted as saying by ANSA.

The newspaper named the dead man as Nicola Calipari.

Il Manifesto's editor Gabriele Polo paid tribute to the Italian agent, crediting him with Sgrena's release.

''Nicola Calipari is the person we must thank most for Giuliana's release. Unfortunately, he was killed by American bullets,'' said Polo.

The journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad last month by an Iraqi group who called on Rome to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

News of the shooting dampened the mood at the Rome offices of the newspaper, where overjoyed staff were celebrating their colleague's release and preparing for her return.

Details of the release were not immediately clear.

Sgrena was abducted February 4 after visiting a Baghdad mosque where refugees have been encamped since a devastating US-led assault on the city of Fallujah in November.

Sgrena was shown pleading for her life in a video released by her kidnappers two weeks after her kidnapping in Baghdad. Sobbing and looking thinner, she delivered an impassioned message pleading for her life, begging Rome to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Berlusconi's centre-right government rejected the plea, and on the same day used its majority to ensure the Italian Senate voted to extend the mission of Rome's 3,000 troops in Iraq.

A few days after the video was shown, an estimated half a million people marched in Rome to demand her release.

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Officials: Freed hostage's driver ignored warnings
Italian agent killed, others wounded in checkpoint shooting
Friday, March 4, 2005 Posted: 9:18 PM EST (0218 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. soldiers attempted to warn the occupants of a car carrying a freed Italian journalist before troops opened fire, killing a bodyguard and wounding the reporter, multinational officials said Friday night.

Giuliana Sgrena, a 56-year-old reporter for the leftist Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, and three Italian security officers were in a car headed to Baghdad International Airport when they approached a checkpoint, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said.

Nicola Calipari was shielding Sgrena when he was killed, Berlusconi said.

Berlusconi said Sgrena had shrapnel in her left shoulder, and U.S. military officials said she was taken to a military hospital.

One agent was seriously wounded, and the other was shot in the leg and refused to go to a hospital, Italian news agencies reported.

President Bush called Berlusconi on Friday night from Air Force One to express his regrets and pledge a full investigation.

According to a multinational forces statement, the car approached the checkpoint at high speed about 9 p.m. (1 p.m. ET)

U.S. troops "attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car," the statement said. "When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle."

Sgrena was kidnapped February 4 outside a mosque in Baghdad. Italian officials did not say how she was freed Friday.

Berlusconi said the two other people in the car contacted his office after the incident.

"They were in disbelief at the fatality at the end of a brilliantly concluded operation," he said.

Berlusconi said though that effort was "concluded positively," the death of Calipari, who was married with two children, brings grief.

"Something that was a joy for all of us ... that I believe brought us all happiness, had to be transformed to a profound sadness for the loss of a person that had behaved ... with valor," he said.

Berlusconi said he called U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler to his office in Rome for an explanation of the shooting. He said Sembler will have to "clarify" the behavior of the troops.

"Someone will have to take responsibility," he said.

A State Department spokeswoman said Sembler and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns called Italy's ambassador to the United States, Sergio Vento, to offer "U.S. condolences and any assistance the U.S. can provide."

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Italy seeks answers on Iraq death
Friday, March 4, 2005 Posted: 6:13 PM EST (2313 GMT)


(CNN) -- Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he has asked the United States for answers about the shooting death of an Italian intelligence officer in Iraq, who was killed while escorting a freed Italian hostage to the airport.

"Given that the fire came from an American source I called in the American ambassador," Berlusconi told reporters Friday.

"I believe we must have an explanation for such a serious incident, for which someone must take the responsibility."

The shooting occurred Friday at a military checkpoint near the airport in Baghdad. U.S. military officials said the incident was under investigation.

In a written statement, Multi-National Forces said that at 8:55 p.m. (1755 GMT) they opened fire on a vehicle that was approaching a checkpoint at a high speed.

U.S. troops "attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car," the statement said. "When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."

Berlusconi said the Italian former hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, was injured in the fire but editors with Il Manifesto said her wounds were not life-threatening.

Sgrena, who had been freed earlier Friday after a month in captivity, was wounded and later taken to a U.S. hospital in Baghdad for treatment.

Il Manifesto, the newspaper that Sgrena worked for, said the person killed was Nicola Calipari, a member of the security forces who was accompanying Sgrena.

Berlusconi said Sgrena, 56, was in a car with three Italian security officers when they arrived at the checkpoint and were fired upon.

Calipari shielded Sgrena and was fatally wounded, Berlusconi said.

Sgrena got a splinter in her left shoulder, he said. She later spoke to someone with Berlusconi's office and said she was fine and would have simple surgery.

Berlusconi is a staunch supporter of U.S. President George W. Bush, backing the U.S.-led invasion and sending in the Italian troops after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

Earlier Friday, the Italian government confirmed Sgrena had been freed.

"She should board a plane in the coming hours and should be back in Rome later tonight," Margherita Boniver, an undersecretary at the Italian foreign ministry, told Sky Italia television.

Sgrena was kidnapped outside a Baghdad mosque on February 4. Later that month, she was shown in a video pleading for her life and urging her government to work for an end to the foreign occupation of Iraq.

The tape was shown on the same day that Italy's Senate voted to extend the funding for the deployment.

Sgrena also asked her partner, Pierre Scolari, to show pictures she had taken of Iraqi children being hit by cluster bombs.

Il Manifesto is a left-leaning newspaper that has long opposed the Iraq war.

Thousands of Italians have taken part in vigils calling for Sgrena's safe return home.

At least eight Italians have been taken hostage in Iraq. Another journalist, Enzo Baldoni, was seized in August 2004 and later killed by his captors.

Berlusconi's government said it would try to secure her freedom but, as in past hostage cases, refused to withdraw Italian troops in Iraq, as hostage-takers have often demanded.

Italy currently has about 3,000 troops in Iraq, the fourth largest foreign contingent after U.S., British and South Korean forces.

Despite the release of Sgrena, there was no news about French journalist Florence Aubenas, who was seized in Baghdad on January 5.

Aubenas made a desperate appeal for help in a video tape released by Iraqi insurgents on Tuesday.


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TheAngel

I think that this incident was a horrible accident but I can't believe that Italians think it was done to harm Italy. Are they stupid enough to believe that we would shoot at one of the few countries offering support. The driver should have slowed down and considering the number of car bombs that have gone off, of course they're going to do something like that. I don't blame our soldiers.

Enigma, I.C.

Cue the apologists in 3...2....1....

sum1

Cue the Hate America crowd in 3...2....1....

- Jen -

just because people dont approve of a reaction by the military or the war in general, doesnt mean they hate America.

-Kelly-

They should they stopped the car, then they wouldn't shot them..

TheAngel

You never know, the Italian Communist party says we did this on purpose. But then again, they're Communist....enough said.

WalkingOnSunshine

Very true. I think it is unfortunate what happened, but the soliders cannot be blamed for trying to protect themselves.

Enigma, I.C.

Just because someone is a communist does not mean that he or she is a bad person and does not render their opinion any less valid than yours or mine.

- annuscka -

Not wanting to get involved in the Hate vs Not Hate America deal, but I do think that, if the soliders actually meant to shoot the people inside the car, it was a really idiotic move. I mean, you want someone to stop, why not shoot the tire, or into the engine (which might of course lead to an accident, depending on speed, but still). Aiming at the people seems just dumb, especially since they were allies and just had come from a hellish experience. But, I still don't buy any conspiration theories, not until I get more evidence for it. I won't put it past the administration, I'm sure things have happend in Iraq that they don't want to be let out, doesn't there in every war zone - but, somehow I don't trust Berluscioni much.

Oh, and re the Italian communists - they're opposition, and probablöy a small party as most European communists. It's their "job" to say exagregated things like these conspriation theories - all opposition parites, especially small ones, do it, left and right.

ETA, because I apparently didn't read everything;
Good! Can't understand why they didn't stop, then.
I still don't understand how the people got shot, though? Did they continue shooting after stopping the car, or did a shot in the engine wound the people?

TheAngel

Look at this history of Communism and the US. I was simply stating the fact that the communist party would attempt to skew something like this and turn it into a weapon. I wasn't discrediting their opinion, even though they're full of it.

*Lauren

You mean when the US shut down every attempt at communism? Communism is not anti-American, its individual parties. I think the fact that the soldiers raked the cab with bullets is wrong. They could have easily stopped the car without delibratly (bullets) killing people inside. (there's always the chance that someone would have been killed if the tire had been shot out, but at least they were *trying* to stop the car without killing people)

LittleMilkJug

The lady in question said they weren't going fast because it was raining. The agent was killed by 'friendly fire', don't you just love that term?

I don't think Italians really believe that the American troops dileberately shot at the car knowing it was full of Italians.

Believe it or not they aren't that 'stupid'.


The Italian people are just so sad that a time for rejoicing has been marred by this tragedy.

Berlusconi, on the other hand, is pissed because he can't turn the liberation of the hostage to his own political advantage, that would be low, even for him.

TheAngel

Yes, let's get as close as possible to a car that could easily contain enough explosives to blow everything around it into tiny pieces. They fired warning shots at the car, what else did you want them to do? This is a war zone. Besides, despite how the movies make it out, it's very difficult to shoot the tires on a moving car. Especially if your in front of it since it's such a small target area and just because the tires are gone doesn't mean that the car will stop.