Italian View of Iraq Shooting at Odds With U.S.

Italy and the United States clashed Tuesday over the slaying by American forces of an Italian intelligence officer in Iraq, with officials offering sharply contradictory accounts.

Italy has demanded a full investigation into the incident, and the U.S. military said Tuesday that it was broadening its inquiry to examine numerous shootings at checkpoints in Iraq.

Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, appearing before Parliament, said the car that U.S. forces opened fire on Friday night was neither speeding nor was it warned to stop, as the U.S. military has said. The car was carrying Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who had just been freed from Iraqi kidnappers, and Nicola Calipari, the intelligence agent who secured her release, to the Baghdad airport. He was killed and Sgrena was wounded.

Fini said he was basing his account on interviews with the driver, another Italian intelligence agent who survived the shooting. It supports the version given by Sgrena.

However, Fini said he did not believe the troops deliberately targeted the Italians, as Sgrena has suggested. “It was certainly an accident,” he said.

Fini said Calipari, a veteran officer involved in the release of several Italian hostages in Iraq, had alerted U.S. authorities that the car would be making its way to the airport, where the group was to take an Italian presidential jet back to Rome. Calipari “made all the necessary contacts with the U.S. authorities” in charge of airport security, Fini said.

In Washington, the top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Tuesday that he had no reason to believe that U.S. officials had been forewarned that the Italian journalist and security officer would be driving to Baghdad’s international airport.

“I personally do not have any indication of that, even on a preliminary basis,” Army Gen. George W. Casey told reporters at the Pentagon. Asked if he would expect to be informed if that were the case, Casey said, “I would hope so.”

Because the incident marked the second so-called friendly fire death at an American checkpoint in a week, Casey said he had ordered a probe of all incidents at military checkpoints over the last six months, including a review of the rules of engagement that govern how troops are allowed to respond to various situations.

A Bulgarian soldier killed in Iraq last week also might have been struck by U.S. gunfire.

The probe, to be overseen by Brig. Gen. Peter Vangjel, artillery commander for the multinational coalition, is expected to take three to four weeks.

“It’s another unfortunate incident,” Casey said. “Again, both the Bulgarians and us are looking into exactly what happened during that period, and we’ll get to the bottom of it.” Casey declined to reveal what commanders on the ground told him of the incident.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Italians would join the investigation and asserted that he did not expect the incident to seriously harm Italian-American relations.

“What we need now, and I think we and the Italians agree on this, is a complete and cooperative investigation, and we will be undertaking that with the Italians participating in the inquiry, and that’s going to commence shortly,” he said.

In Italy, the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi found itself having to respond to public anger over the shooting.

The U.S. Army has said the Italians’ car was speeding toward a checkpoint and failed to heed the Americans’ hand signals and other warnings telling it to stop. Fini said there was no checkpoint and no signals, and the car was traveling about 25 mph. It had slowed to that speed, he said, because of puddles in the road and a sharp curve, and the Italians had left on the lights inside the car to better identify them.

In a detailed reconstruction of the incident presented to Parliament, Fini said the troops focused a searchlight on the car and immediately began firing for 10 or 20 seconds. They then stopped and approached the vehicle. They took the driver out, walked him several feet away, forced him to kneel on the ground, then apparently realized their mistake. Two young soldiers apologized profusely to the driver, who was wounded, Fini said.

“It is our duty,” Fini said, “to demand that the people responsible be identified and, if there are people to be blamed, that they be punished.”

Fini avoided answering a question about whether Italy had paid a multimillion-dollar ransom, as has been widely rumored.

“We followed diplomatic, political and intelligence tracks, thoroughly verifying dozens and dozens of trails,” he said.

Iraqis claiming to have been Sgrena’s kidnappers released a tape Tuesday denying they had accepted money to free her.

Washington opposes the payment of ransoms, arguing that it encourages more abductions.

Wilkinson reported from Rome and Hendren from Washington.