Italian journalist injured, agent killed

ROME -- 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 on 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.

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 press 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" must 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 "details are still unclear" but "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, initially 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 that 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 checkpoint here today. About 9 p.m., a patrol in western Baghdad observed the vehicle speeding toward 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 is a dangerous throughway that has been the scene of numerous ambushes and car bombings. In addition, U.S. troops have frequently fired on cars approaching checkpoints around Iraq, for fear they might be 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.

After returning to Manifesto's offices, Polo criticized the Americans. "An Italian agent has been killed by an American bullet - - a tragic demonstration that everything that's happening in Iraq is completely senseless and mad," he said. "Nicola Calipari is the person we must thank most for Giuliana's release. Unfortunately, he was killed by American bullets."

The shooting is unlikely, however, to change Berlusconi's attitude toward Iraq. Berlusconi has consistently supported Bush administration policy there and provided 2,700 paramilitary police to patrol the southern city of Nassariyah. He has weathered controversy over the deaths of Italian soldiers and two other Italian kidnap victims and resisted repeated opposition calls for a troop pullout.

Italian officials have indicated ransoms have been paid in the past, but it was unclear Friday if one was paid for Sgrena or if she might have been freed in a rescue operation.

The shooting provided a bizarre, whipsaw climax to an emotional saga that had gripped Italy for a month.

After her Feb. 4 kidnapping, Sgrena appeared on a videotape, disheveled, tearful and on her knees pleading for her life. "Help me, help," she cried. "My life depends on you. Make pressure on the Italian government to withdraw its troops." The words Mujahaddin Without Borders were superimposed in the corner of the screen -- the third name associated with her kidnappers. Earlier claims to hold her captive had come from the Jihad Organization of Mesopotamia and the Islamic Jihad Organization.

On Feb. 19, supporters of Sgrena and anti-war activists mounted a large demonstration in Rome, demanding the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq. The government, while appealing for Sgrena's safety and working behind the scenes for her release, dismissed calls for a pullout. Members and sympathizers of Berlusconi's right- wing coalition declined to take part in the demonstration.

On Friday, by all appearances, the government was preparing to take full credit for Sgrena's release. Government officials began to express gratitude to Gianni Letta, Berlusconi's top aide. Letta has coordinated past efforts to release Italian hostages.

But late Friday night, Letta called relatives of Sgrena in north Italy. He told them there had been an "accident," according to Ivan Sgrena, her brother.

Contributing: John Ward Anderson, Glenn Kessler, Ann Scott Tyson.

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