Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (L) greets freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena at Rome's military hospital 07 March 2005. The shooting of the reporter in Baghdad will be investigated over three to four weeks by a joint US-Italian team, the US commander of multinational forces in Iraq said as Italians fumed. (xinhua/AFP)

    ROME, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- An old video of former Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena was released on Tuesday with new comment saying that no ransom had been paid for her release, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

    According to the report the tape was sent to the Baghdad office of the Associated Press Television News and showed old footage of two armed Iraqi men standing behind journalist Sgrena, who was released last Friday.

    An off-screen male voice which had been added to the footage said the group holding Sgrena had rejected the offer of a ransom.

    It also accused American soldiers of deliberately firing on thecar which had been taking the journalist to Baghdad airport.

    "America eats its allies. America stabs its allies. The Resistance knew that the CIA wanted to kill the journalist, the voice said.

    The images of Sgrena and two of her captors were taken from a video issued last Friday just prior to her release.

    In that video, Sgrena thanked her kidnappers for treating her well and stressed the insurgents were "determined to free their country from occupation."

    She appears calm and well in the footage, standing in a white room behind a bowl of fruit.

    The images are in stark contrast to an earlier video of the journalist in which she appeared desperate and tearful as she appealed for help.

    

In this photo released Tuesday March 8, 2005 by the Italian RAI TG1 national television, network military personnel are seen near a car said to be that which Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was travelling with deceased secret service operative Nicola Calipari, during her release in Baghdad, Iraq, last Friday March 4, 2005. Sgrena returned to Italy but Calipari was killed in what appears to be a friendly fire incident by U.S. troops. (AP Photo)

    Sgrena was released on Friday through the mediation of Italy's military intelligence service SISMI. On her way to Baghdad airport the car she was riding in was fired upon by American forces that killed Italian agent Nicola Calipari, who had obtained Sgrena release and used his body to shield her.

    Sgrena was seized on Feb. 4 while driving away from a mosque in Baghdad where she had been interviewing Sunni Muslims.

    She works for Italian leftwing daily Il Manifesto.

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