Italy doubts US version of shooting on journalist’s car

Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena, shot and wounded after being freed in Iraq, said on Sunday US forces may have deliberately targeted her bec...

Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena, shot and wounded after being freed in Iraq, said on Sunday US forces may have deliberately targeted her because Washington opposed Italy’s policy of dealing with kidnappers.

She offered no evidence for the claim that reflected growing anger in Italy over the conduct of the war, which has claimed more than 20 Italian lives, including secret agent Nicola Calipari who rescued her moments before being killed. The shooting on Friday evening has sparked tension with Italy’s US allies and put pressure on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to take a hard line with President George W. Bush.

Speaking from the Rome hospital where she is being treated, Sgrena said the troops may have targeted her because Washington opposes Italy’s reported readiness to pay ransoms to kidnappers. ‘‘The United States doesn’t approve of this (ransom) policy and so they try to stop it in any way possible,’’ the veteran war reporter, 57, told Sky Italia TV.

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Bush promised a full probe into why troops shot at the Italian car nearing Baghdad airport on Friday evening. Calipari died instantly of a single bullet to the head, doctors said.

The US military says the car was speeding towards a checkpoint and ignored warning shots, an explanation rejected by Italian government ministers and the driver of the car.

Rome prosecutors have opened a second degree murder investigation into Calipari’s death and Italy’s justice minister has signed documents requesting information from witnesses.

Iraq’s dominant Shia-led alliance has set a mid-March deadline to form a government, prodded to action by spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who demanded progress after more than a month of post-election haggling.

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Members of the United Iraqi Alliance, the big winner in the January 30 elections, met in Central Baghdad yesterday and agreed to try to form a government and convene the 275-member National Assembly by March 15.

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