Italy says stress, inexperience played role in Iraq killing

ROME -- Italian investigators have concluded that stress, inexperience, and fatigue among US soldiers played a role in the shooting death of an Italian agent in Baghdad, according to a report released yesterday.

The investigation found no evidence that the killing March 4 of intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was deliberate.

Calipari was killed just after he secured the release of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from Iraqi militants who held her hostage for a month. US soldiers fired on the Italians' vehicle as it approached the checkpoint near Baghdad's airport. Sgrena and another Italian agent were wounded.

''It is likely that the state of tension stemming from the conditions of time, circumstances and place, as well as possibly some degree of inexperience and stress might have led some soldiers to instinctive and little-controlled reactions," Italy's report stated. It said the soldiers failed to provide warning there was a roadblock ahead and the checkpoint had no signs, bright cones, or other markers.

US investigators, in their report made public Saturday, said the American soldiers gave adequate warning, beaming a light and firing warning shots, as the car traveled toward Baghdad's airport. They cleared the US soldiers of any wrongdoing, sparking outrage in Italy, where Calipari had been hailed as a hero.

The Italian report, written by two investigators who had participated in the joint inquiry, said US officials had not taken any measures to preserve the scene of the shooting. It said the car carrying Sgrena and the agents was removed before its position was marked, for example. It said the soldiers' vehicles also were moved.

''That made it impossible to technically reconstruct the event, to determine the exact position of the vehicles and measure the distances, and to obtain precise data defining the precise trajectory of the bullets, the speed of the car and the stopping distance," the report said.

Italy and the United States have publicly differed over crucial points about the shooting since the first hours after the shooting. Several days of negotiations failed to yield a common report.

Italy is a main partner in the US-led coalition in Iraq. The approximately 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq for reconstruction constitute one of the coalition's largest contingents.

But Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch American ally, has faced political fallout over the case, including calls to bring home Italy's troops from Iraq. He is scheduled to address both houses of parliament on the case Thursday.

The US report contained many blacked-out portions, including the names of the soldiers at the checkpoint and their units. But due to an apparent error, what was blacked out in the report could be read on the website of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Some of the material that had been blacked out also discussed training for checkpoint duty and checkpoint procedures.

The US military said it regretted the mistake. ''We need to improve our procedures. We regret this happened. We obviously didn't take sufficient precautions," said Air Force Colonel Donald Alston, a spokesman for US-led forces in Baghdad. He added that some of the leaked information appeared to be classified.

Some Italian politicians have said Italy should pull its troops out of Iraq to protest the shooting, but Defense Minister Antonio Martino looked to ease tensions yesterday as he attended a World War II commemoration alongside the US ambassador to Italy.

Asked if the dispute would hurt ties between the two countries, Martino said: ''Certainly not."

US ambassador Mel Sembler also sought to minimize the dispute during the service at a US military cemetery near Rome. ''As you can see today, the relations between the United States and Italy are strong and will remain strong," Sembler said.

Material from Reuters was included in this report.