US Tried To Murder Freed
Italian Reporter - Report
US Attack On Italians In Baghdad Said Deliberate
AFP via Turkish Press
3-5-5
ROME - The companion of freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena on
Saturday leveled serious accusations at US troops who fired at her
convoy as it was nearing Baghdad airport, saying the shooting had been
deliberate.
"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari
said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to
undergo surgery following her return home.
"They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they
had passed all checkpoints."
The shooting late Friday was witnessed by Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi's office which was on the phone with one of the secret
service agents, said Scolari. "Then the US military silenced the
cellphones," he charged.
"Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to
survive," he added.
When Sgrena was kidnapped on February 4 she was writing an article on
refugees from Fallujah seeking shelter at a Baghdad mosque after US
forces bombed the former Sunni rebel stronghold.
Sgrena told RaiNews24 television Saturday a "hail of bullets" rained
down on the car taking her to safety at Baghdad airport, along with
three secret service agents, killing one of them.
"I was speaking to (agent) Nicola Calipari (...) when he leant on me,
probably to protect me, and then collapsed and I realized he was
dead," said Sgrena, who was being questioned on Saturday by two
Italian magistrates.
"They continued shooting and the driver couldn't even explain that we
were Italians. It was really horrible," she added.
Sgrena, who was hospitalized with serious wounds to her left shoulder
and lung after arriving back in Rome Saturday before noon, said she
was "exhausted because of what happened above all in the last 24
hours".
"After all the risks I have been running I can say that I'm fine," she
said.
"I thought that after I was handed over to the Italians danger was
over, but then this shooting broke out and we were hit by a hail of
bullets."
The chief editor of Sgrena's left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto Gabriele
Polo meanwhile branded Calipari's death a "murder".
"He was hit in the head," he said.
Calipari will be given a state funeral Monday.
"Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one,some bigger than others"
.
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