US Attack Against
Italians In Baghdad was Deliberate: Companion
By AFP
06 March , 2005
AFP
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.
© 2005 AFP