Italy disputes U.S. shooting account
Foreign minister dismisses suggestions of deliberate attack
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|  VIDEO |
 CNN's Barbara Starr looks at conflicting reports between U.S. military and Italian journalist about fatal shooting in Iraq.
 A state funeral honors an Italian agent killed in Iraq by U.S. troops while helping free a hostage.
 Giuliana Sgrena challenges U.S. account on shooting.
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RELATED |
• White House: U.S. didn't target journalist
• Agent was seasoned negotiator
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(CNN) -- Italy's foreign minister has openly disputed the U.S. military's account of the shooting death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq.
Gianfranco Fini ruled out suggestions that U.S. forces might have deliberately targeted the Italians, but he told parliament Tuesday there were discrepancies between Italian and U.S. accounts.
Fini restated Rome's demand for a full explanation from the Americans, putting fresh pressure on Washington.
U.S. forces in Iraq on Tuesday announced the establishment of a team to investigate the American shooting of a freed Italian hostage and the killing of a security agent at an airport road checkpoint in Baghdad, the military said.
"It was certainly an accident, an accident caused by a series of circumstances and coincidences," Fini said.
"But this doesn't mean, in fact it makes it necessary, to demand that events are clarified, to ask for explanations of the points that are still unclear, to identify those responsible, and if people are to blame then to request and obtain that the guilty parties are punished," he said.
Fini's comments come a day after Italy held a state funeral for agent Nicola Calipari, 50, who was killed when a convoy carrying freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena was hit by a barrage of gunfire from U.S. troops when it did not stop at a checkpoint Friday night. (Full story)
Fini gave parliament a detailed reconstruction of the incident, insisting the Italians had been driving slowly and had received no warning before the attack -- counter to suggestions by U.S. authorities.
"The car was traveling at a velocity that couldn't have been more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour," Fini said, adding there were no attempts to stop the car as indicated by the U.S. military.
Immediately after the fatal shooting, U.S. soldiers apologized profusely to Sgrena and an unnamed intelligence officer who survived the gunfire, Fini said.
He said Calipari, an experienced officer who had negotiated the release of other hostages in Iraq in the past, "made all the necessary contacts with the U.S. authorities," both with those in charge of airport security and with the forces patrolling areas next to the airport.
"The government has a duty to point out that the reconstruction of the tragic event that I have set out and as emerges from the direct account of our secret service official who was with Dr. Calipari does not coincide, totally, with what has been said so far by the U.S. authorities," Fini said.
Earlier Tuesday, a senior U.S. official said the checkpoint where Calipari was killed had been set up for the passage of the U.S. ambassador to Iraq on the road to the Baghdad airport.
Ambassador John Negroponte had been expected to pass the Baghdad-area checkpoint a short time later, the official said.
Sgrena, a journalist, had just been freed by kidnappers after a month in captivity and was being escorted by Italian security agents to safety.
Calipari, 50, threw his body across Sgrena when U.S. troops opened fire.
The details surrounding the incident have been widely disputed by Sgrena, who said there was no checkpoint.
"Our car was driving slowly ... the Americans fired without motive," Sgrena said.
In an article published Sunday in her communist newspaper, Il Manifesto, Sgrena described a "rain of fire and bullets" in the incident. (Ex-hostage disputes U.S. account)
The U.S. military said Sgrena's car rapidly approached a checkpoint Friday night, and those inside ignored repeated warnings to stop.
Troops used arm signals and flashing white lights, fired warning shots in front of the car, and shot into the engine block when the driver did not stop, the military said in a statement.
But in an interview with Italy's La 7 Television, the 56-year-old journalist said "there was no bright light, no signal."
And Italian magistrate Franco Ionta said Sgrena reported the incident was not at a checkpoint, but rather that the shots came from "a patrol that shot as soon as they lit us up with a spotlight."
It remains unclear whether U.S. officials knew that the Italian security team would be taking Sgrena to the airport.
Sgrena was slightly wounded in the shoulder and underwent treatment at a U.S. hospital in Baghdad. She is now back in Rome, getting follow-up treatment at the city's military hospital.
Sgrena has promised Calipari's widow she would find out why they were attacked.
CNN's Rome Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci said Sgrena was not ruling out the possibility that the Americans may have targeted her on purpose because the U.S. opposed negotiating with kidnappers.
The White House on Monday rejected the suggestion, as did Italy's foreign minister.
"I think it's absurd to make any such suggestion that our men and women in uniform deliberately targeted innocent civilians. That's just absurd," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Monday. (Full story)
Italian media suggest a ransom was paid for her release, but government officials are not commenting on the reports. The Italian government has paid ransoms to free other hostages in the past.
An autopsy found Calipari, an experienced negotiator who had previously secured the release of other Italian hostages in Baghdad, was killed by a single shot to the head and died instantly. (Profile)
CNN's Alessio Vinci and Elise Labott contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
