'Co-ordination issues in Iraq'

2005-05-01 18:07

Rome - The Italian government said Sunday its report on the killing of an Italian intelligence agent by US soldiers in Baghdad will shed light on problems of co-ordination with authorities in Iraq and with rules of engagement for checkpoints.

In a statement on its website, the Italian foreign ministry said the Italian report will be made public on Monday evening, providing its own version of the March 4 "friendly fire" shooting death of agent Nicola Calipari, who had just won the release of an Italian hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena.

On Saturday, the US military released its report, contending the car Calipari was riding as he headed to Baghdad airport with the ex-hostage didn't slow down at the checkpoint and that the American soldiers didn't do anything wrong.

The two Italian experts who participated in the joint US-Italian probe of the shooting refused to sign off on the Americans' conclusions.

After several days of negotiations failed to yield a common final report, both sides essentially agreed to disagree on the findings.

"Despite, in fact, the many points on which the two sides registered similar assessments, the principal aspects on which it wasn't possible to pinpoint shared assessments regard, above all, the rules of engagement and the coordination with the competent authorities in Iraq," the ministry statement said.

"All that will emerge clearly from the Italian report, being worked on, which will be made public on Monday at 18:00" (16:00 GMT), the ministry said.

Differences

The ministry statement noted there was "full collaboration" between the Italian and American authorities in investigating the circumstances of Calipari's death.

Rome prosecutors are doing their own probe, and are awaiting the completion of tests on the car to learn more about the vehicle's speed and the distance and direction from which the gunfire came.

US authorities allowed the bullet-riddled car to be flown to Rome a few days ago.

Italy and the United States have differed over crucial points since the first hours after the killing of Calipari, who has been hailed as a hero at home.

The two Italian survivors of the shooting - Sgrena and another agent who was driving the Toyota Corolla - insisted in testimony that the car was traveling at about 40-50 km/h on a rain-slicked road and that soldiers at the temporary checkpoint flashed a beam of light at them in apparent warning just before the shooting began.

The US military contends that the car was going about twice as fast as the Italians say, and that warning shots were fired, before soldiers fired, aiming at the engine block.

The two sides are long-standing allies, and Italy is one of the main partners in the US-led coalition in Iraq.

Italy's approximately 3 000 troops who were deployed in Iraq for reconstruction constitute one of the coalition's largest contingents.

Names blacked-out

Also crucial is whether the American forces were told to be on the lookout for the agents and Sgrena as they drove to the airport. Italian authorities have told Parliament the agents did inform the Americans that they were heading back to the airport after their mission.

However there have been suggestions that the Italians didn't fill the American authorities in on all the details of their mission to win the hostage's release.

News reports have said US discouragement of paying a ransom might have led the Italians to keep quiet about some aspects about the efforts to win the freedom of Sgrena, who had been held captive a month.

The US report which was released on Saturday contained many blacked-out portions, including the names of the soldiers at the checkpoint and their units, including the sole soldier to fire. But due to an apparent error, what was blacked out in the report could be read in some downloaded versions, Italian news reports said Sunday.

Some of the material that could be read in this downloading also discussed training the soldiers' received in handling checkpoints.

The Italian prosecutors handling the separate probe have said they wanted to obtain a list of the soldiers at the checkpoint, and the revelation of their names in the downloaded version could aid any efforts to seek prosecution of the Americans.

- AP