ROME/BAGHDAD,
March 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A festive
atmosphere that followed the release of Italian journalist Giuliana
Sgrena soon turned into gloom and confusion, with Italians holding
their breath after learning she was fired upon by the US occupation
forces.
“An
Italian agent has been killed by an American bullet a tragic
demonstration ... that everything that's happening in Iraq is
senseless and mad,” said Gabriele Polo, editor of Il Manifesto,
the independent daily for which Sgrena worked, fighting back his
tears, reported The Independent Saturday, March 5.
Trigger-happy
American soldiers opened fire at the car of the 56-year-old reporter,
wounding her and killing an Italian secret service agent who shielded
her from the bullets.
“There's
little to say. The Americans nearly killed her,” Sgrena's companion,
Pier Scolari, was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Polo
said he had learned that Sgrena had undergone surgery in a US military
hospital to have shrapnel removed from her collar bone and would be
able to fly back home later Saturday.
The
journalist was kidnapped February 4 outside a Baghdad mosque by an
Iraqi group who called on Rome to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
According
to the US military, the vehicle carrying Sgrena and the agent was
traveling at high speed toward a checkpoint and the soldiers who fired
on it 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.
According
to Reporters without Borders, 21 journalists have been kidnapped in
Iraq since March 2003.
Thirty
three have been killed since then, the latest being Iraqi journalist
Raeda Wazzan.
Angry
Italy
 |
|
“It
is a pity. This was a joyful moment which made all our co-citizens
happy, which has been transformed into profound pain,” said
Berlusconi.
|
The
US ambassador to Rome was summoned immediately to the office of Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi to explain the friendly fire incident.
“The
prime minister expects that, in the spirit of the particular
friendship that characterizes relations between Italy and the United
States, the US government leaves no stone unturned to shed light on
what happened and on who might be responsible,” Berlusconi said in a
statement carried by Reuters.
The
premier paid tribute to 50-year-old secret service officer Nicola
Calipari, who sacrificed his life for Sgrena.
“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,” he added.
In
Washington, the White House said President George W. Bush called
Berlusconi from Air Force One to express his regret.
“This
was a call to reach out to a good friend and express our regret about
the incident,” Reuters quoted White House spokesman Scott McClellan
as saying.
Italy
has 3,000 troops in US-occupied Iraq and the death will cast a new
shadow over Berlusconi’s unwavering support for the US.
It
was the most serious diplomatic incident between the two allies since
February 1998 when a US Marine jet cut the lines of a ski lift
cable-car in Cavalese (in the Italian Alps); killing 20 people.
Bush
to Blame
Sgrena's
partner Scolari said he could not blame the US soldiers for the
shooting, saying they were probably “scared boys”, and that the
real blame lay with those who had sent them to Iraq.
“I
have said so many times, war is madness. Probably it was scared boys
who fired, it wasn't their fault, it was the fault of those that sent
them there,” he told Sky Italia TV.
Sgrena's
colleagues at Il Manifesto were holding a party to celebrate
her release on Friday evening when news of the shooting reached them,
plunging the gathering into bewilderment and sadness, Reuters
reported.
The
newspaper's cartoonist had to redraw his picture. A first draft showed
a man hugging a dove with an olive twig in its beak, saying “You've
brought her back to us.”
In
the final version the dove is dragging itself along the floor in a
pool of blood.
