Italian journalist released in Iraq returns home

Freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena who was kidnapped on Feb. 4 in Iraq flied back home Saturday, one day after she was wounded by US troops in Iraq. (Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

(Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

(Photo: Xinhua/Reuters)

(Photo: Xinhua/Reuters)

Several hundred of Italians protest in front of the US embassy in Rome chanting, 'Troops out of Iraq ' and 'USA, war criminals' as freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena returned home after she was wounded in a shooting incident by US troops in Baghdad.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)

    ROME, March 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena who had spent a month in captivity in Iraq and gone through a shooting ordeal on the way back home returned to Italy on Saturday.

    Italian News Agency ANSA said any celebration for the release of Sgrena has been muted by the death of the secret service agent who saved her life by shielding her from US troops' gunfire.

    Sgrena was injured when US forces opened fire on the secret service car taking her to Baghdad airport. A surgery at an American military hospital in Iraq removed a shrapnel from her left shoulder.

    The US military said the car Sgrena was riding in was speeding as it approached a coalition checkpoint in western Baghdad on its way to the airport and soldiers opened fire after the driver ignored warning.

    Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari used his body to shield Sgrena from the reported 300-400 rounds fired by the US forces and was killed instantly. Another agent in the car was alsowounded.

    Speaking to her colleagues at the left-wing daily Il Manifesto,Sgrena said she had been treated well by her captors but was deeply saddened by Calipari's sacrifice.

    Everything concerning her release, on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital, had gone smoothly until the US forces opened fire, she said.

    Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi demanded full light be shed on the incident and said Calipari will be given a gold medal for heroism.

    US President George W. Bush had phoned Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday night to express his regret over the incident and pledged a full investigation.

    Sgrena, 57, was kidnapped on Feb. 4 while driving away from a mosque in Iraq. She was shown last month in a video pleading for her life and demanding that all foreign troops leave Iraq. Enditem