Roadblock death: Italy didn't alert U.S. troops

A U.S. military source said yesterday that the "main contributing factor" in the shooting death of Italian agent Nicola Calipari at an American roadblock in Baghdad, Iraq, was Italy's failure to inform U.S. soldiers that it would be bringing a newly released Italian hostage along the road to the airport.

Meanwhile, the hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was injured in the Friday-night shooting, said she could not rule out that the Americans intentionally shot at her. She gave no evidence, however.

An Italian Cabinet member implied such suspicions were "nonsense."

According to the military source, who said he spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident is under investigation, U.S. soldiers had established an impromptu evening checkpoint at the entrance to the road to the airport about 90 minutes earlier and had stopped other vehicles. They knew a high-level U.S. Embassy official would be moving to the airport on that road, and their aim was to support that movement, he said.

But no specific coordination occurred between those involved in Sgrena's rescue and the military unit responsible for the checkpoint, according to the source.

The absence of advance communication between the Italians and the U.S. soldiers at the checkpoint appears to have put the occupants of the car in grave jeopardy, given what many U.S. officials describe as the military's standard practice of firing at onrushing cars from their checkpoints in Iraq.

"In my view, the main contributing factor was a lack of prior coordination with the ground unit," the source said. "If requested, we would have resourced and supported this mission very differently."

Soldiers at the checkpoint have told U.S. military officers that they flashed lights, used hand signals and fired warning shots in an effort to stop the car, which they believed was traveling at more than 50 mph, a typical speed for that road.

Sgrena's editor at the daily Il Manifesto, Gabriele Polo, said Italian officials told him 300 to 400 rounds were fired at the car.

Talking in Rome, Sgrena said she believed it was possible she was targeted because the United States objected to methods used to secure her release.

"The fact that the Americans don't want negotiations to free the hostages is known," the 56-year-old journalist told Sky TG24 television by telephone, her voice hoarse and shaky. "The fact that they do everything to prevent the adoption of this practice to save the lives of people held hostage, everybody knows that. So I don't see why I should rule out that I could have been the target."

Sgrena said she knew nothing about a ransom payment, and no details have emerged about how authorities won her release. An Italian Cabinet minister said money likely changed hands.

U.S. officials object to ransom payments or negotiation with kidnappers, claiming that only encourages further hostage-taking.

An Italian Cabinet member urged Sgrena, who writes for a communist newspaper that routinely opposes U.S. policy in Iraq, to be cautious in her accounts and said the shooting would not affect Italy's support for the Bush administration.

"I understand the emotion of these hours, but those who have been under stress in the past few weeks should pull themselves together and avoid saying nonsense," Communications Minister Maurizio Gasparri said.

Gasparri also said the shooting would not affect Italian support for efforts to secure postwar Iraq.

"The military mission must carry on because it consolidates democracy and liberty in Iraq," he said.

The shooting has fueled anti-American sentiment in a country where people have deeply opposed the war in Iraq and its government support of the war with 3,000 troops, but it did not provoke mass protests like those that earlier drew tens of thousands of people into the streets.

White House counselor Dan Bartlett said yesterday the shootings were a "horrific accident," noting that President Bush called Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi to offer condolences and promise a full investigation.

"As you know, in a situation where there is a live combat zone, particularly this road to the airport, [which] has been a notorious area for car bombs, that people are making split-second decisions, and it's critically important that we get the facts before we make judgments," Bartlett said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Sgrena, who gave a series of interviews to Italian reporters from her hospital bed in Rome, revealed few details about the circumstances surrounding her release by the insurgents, but said her captors blindfolded her and drove her some distance before turning her over to the Italians, who headed directly for the airport.

Asked if ransom was paid, Agriculture Minister Giovanni Alemanno said it was "very probable." An Iraqi politician, Younadem Kana, said he had "nonofficial" information that $1 million was paid, Italy's Apcom news agency reported, although that could not be confirmed.