lying liars and those who support it
Freed hostage recalls US shooting
Says troops not justified in firing on car
By Robin Pomeroy, Reuters | March 6, 2005
ROME -- An Italian journalist who was freed by Iraqi militants Friday said yesterday that US forces had sprayed her car with bullets as it neared safety in Iraq, wounding her and killing the man who had secured her release.
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US soldiers opened fire as the car carrying the reporter, Giuliana Sgrena, approached the Baghdad airport after she was released by the militants who had held her captive for more than a month.
The US military has said the car carrying Sgrena was speeding, and added that the military had not been told that the car would be passing through its checkpoint in western Baghdad.
Sgrena disputed key parts of the military's account in an interview yesterday.
In comments reported by the news agency ANSA, Sgrena told investigating magistrates in Rome that the car was not traveling fast and that there was no real checkpoint.
''The firing was not justified by the speed of our car," she was quoted as saying. She added only that it was traveling at a ''regular" speed.
''It wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol which shot as soon as it had lit us up with a spotlight," she said. ''We had no idea where the shots were coming from."
Sgrena, 56, arrived in Rome yesterday and seemed to be in pain as she was helped off a government plane. Sgrena was clutching a plaid blanket and was attached to a drip.
Sgrena was taken by ambulance to a military hospital in Rome, a day after undergoing surgery at a US military hospital in Iraq to remove shrapnel from her shoulder. Doctors examined her and said late yesterday that another operation was not needed.
''We thought the danger was over after my release to the Italians, but all of a sudden there was this shoot-out; we were hit by a barrage of bullets," she told RAI television by telephone.
Nicola Calipari, a secret service agent who had worked for her release, was telling her about what had been going on in Italy since her capture when the shooting started.
''He leaned over me, probably to protect me, and then he slumped down, and I saw he was dead," Sgrena said.
Doctors said Sgrena was in stable condition after suffering a gunshot wound to her left shoulder that fractured a bone and bruised one lung. Another passenger was wounded.
Sgrena, who was abducted in Baghdad on Feb. 4, was met at the Rome airport by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi, an ally of the United States who has kept Italian troops in Iraq despite opposition at home, has demanded an explanation from the United States for the shooting and has received assurances from President Bush that it would be investigated.
In Baghdad, US Colonel Bob Potter said coalition forces were ''aggressively investigating the incident."
Amid the conflicting accounts of how the accident occurred, the Italian government demanded answers yesterday as Sgrena returned to Rome.
The shooting in Baghdad has stoked antiwar sentiment in Italy, where the public was widely opposed to the government's decision to send 3,000 troops to help US-led efforts to secure the country from a violent insurgency.
About 100 demonstrators outside the US Embassy in Rome blocked traffic and a banner read, ''USA, war criminals." A few dozen communist demonstrators at the US Consulate in Milan handed out leaflets reading, ''Shame on you, Bush."
The Italian government awarded Calipari, the slain agent, a medal of valor yesterday. Calipari, 50, was the brother of a priest who serves on a Vatican advisory body, Vatican radio reported, and Pope John Paul II sent a message of condolence to the agent's family.
Italy said two other agents were wounded. One was seriously injured and remained hospitalized in Iraq, while the other returned on Sgrena's flight, Italian state television said. Calipari's body was flown back to Italy late yesterday.