I was US target - journalist
2005-03-06 14:08
Rome - The Italian journalist wounded by US troops shortly after her month-long kidnap ordeal ended this weekend, on Sunday fanned a growing diplomatic rift between Rome and Washington by suggesting the US soldiers deliberately tried to kill her.
Giuliana Sgrena, wounded when the convoy taking her to safety was riddled with bullets by a US patrol near Baghdad airport on Friday, said she may have been a target because the US opposed negotiations with her kidnappers.
"Everyone knows that the Americans don't want hostages to be freed by negotiations, and for that reason, I don't see why I should rule out that I was their target," Sgrena told Sky Italia news channel on Sunday.
The comment comes amid fears that Friday's incident, in which Italy's top intelligence officer in Iraq was killed, could lead to a full-scale diplomatic rift between the two allies.
"The incident could have very serious political consequences," Italy's La Stampa daily said in a front page editorial.
"The state of relations between the two governments, Italy and the United States, has suffered an immediate deterioration.
"Hour after hour, Washington's version given by the state department immediately after the incident has begun to unravel.
"The theory that an absence of coordination in Baghdad between the two allied commands and excessive secrecy by the Italians about their (rescue) mission led to the shooting near the airport, has faded."
Delicate operation
"The Italian government said it had informed the United States about the very delicate operation which was about to begin.
"And the presence of an American colonel at Baghdad airport along with the Italian officers who were waiting for Sgrena and her liberators, demonstrates that the operation was being conducted in harmony," the newspaper said.
It said however that a ranson was "almost certainly" paid to the kidnappers, even though any payment was "very probably" opposed by the Americans.
Sgrena, a 56-year-old correspondent for the Italian communist daily Il Manifesto, confirmed on Sunday that she had been voluntarily released by her kidnappers.
With most attention on the dramatic aftermath, little has been said about the circumstances of her actual release. Sgrena's account in her newspaper made it clear however that no force was involved, and that her kidnappers drove her to an obviously pre-arranged handover point.
Washington has pledged a full inquiry into the incident and President George W. Bush has personally expressed his regret over what happened.
The body of the dead intelligence officer, Nicola Calipari, has been repatriated to Rome and was to lie in state at the Vittoriano national monument on Sunday before a state funeral on Monday.
The US military said their forces had given ample warning to the driver of Sgrena's car, which they said was approaching at speed when they opened fire, but that has been flatly contradicted by Sgrena.
- AFP