Dean's World

A Italian hostage is released in Iraq — joy. Her car is fired on by U.S. forces....then grief. There are human and political dimensions in this tragedy that could create several consequences.

UPDATE: This story is, of course, exploding in Italy. Wounded hostage Giuliana Sgrena has given this account what happened inside the car:

"We thought the danger was over after my release to the Italians but all of a sudden there was this shoot-out, we were hit by a barrage of bullets," she told RAI TV by telephone.

Nicola Calipari, the senior secret service agent who had worked for her release, was telling her about what had been going on in Italy since her capture when the shooting started.

"He leaned over me, probably to protect me, and then he slumped down, and I saw he was dead," said Sgrena.

And there is the predictable political reaction from parties in Italy that didn't want that country to send troops to Iraq and public sentiment was against the U.S. war at the outset:

While moderate opposition leaders were cautious in their criticism, hard-line leftists said the shooting would galvanize anti-war opinion.

"I don't believe a word of the American version," said Oliviero Diliberto, head of the Italian Communist party, part of the main left-wing block led by former premier Romano Prodi.

"The Americans deliberately fired on Italians. This is huge. All of the center-left must vote in parliament for the withdrawal of our troops."

But the Italian government has made it clear that while it's demanding an explanation, the incident won't change its policy.

UPDATE II More quotes from Sgrena:

Sgrena, the 56-year-old correspondent of the communist daily Il Manifesto, told Italian investigators the US troops` intense fire had been in no way justified by the speed of her car, ANSA news agency said.

"Our vehicle was running at normal speed which could not be misunderstood," she said, rejecting US fears of a possible suicide attack.

"It wasn`t a checkpoint but a patrol which immediately opened fire after they trained their light on us," Sgrena said.

And then there's this (from same article):

Her companion, who traveled with her from Baghdad, leveled serious accusations at the US troops involved in the incident, saying the shooting had been deliberate.

"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Celio hospital.

"They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

Friday`s shooting was heard by Berlusconi`s aides who were on the phone with one of the intelligence officers, 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 bastion.

Il Manifesto chief editor Gabriele Polo meanwhile branded the intelligence officer`s death a "murder". Calipari, 51, is to be given a state funeral Monday.

So: now it has evolved into a flat accusation by some that it wasn't a mistake at all...