ROME, May 3: The government on Monday blamed the killing of a senior Italian intelligence agent in Baghdad on the “inexperience” of US troops acting under stress and without proper rules of engagement. The much-awaited report differed diametrically from the US account issued On Saturday, which exonerated the American troops who opened fire on agent Nicola Calipari near Baghdad airport on March 4 as he was escorting a freed Italian hostage to safety.

The Italian report said the US roadblock near the airport had not been properly signalled and that “the soldiers in the American patrol opened fire out of inexperience and because of the tension.” It rejected the US suggestion that the automobile driven by Calipari was traveling too fast. The speed “cannot be placed in question,” it said.

“The driver of the automobile was not travelling fast because the airport road was wet, because he knew he was approaching a 90-degree turn and because he was driving with one hand, since he had a portable telephone in the other,” the report said.

The report, which was handed to US Ambassador Mel Sembler and released to the public four hours later, threatened to deepen the rift between Italy and the United States over the incident.

Based on testimony by an Italian officer who survived the shooting and the released hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian report said it was likely that “the tension related to the circumstances and probably a certain level of inexperience and stress had been able to drive certain soldiers to instinctive and uncontrolled actions.” It said a “lack of reference to clear rules that could and should have been observed makes it difficult to identify individuals and assign specific responsibilities.”

The report also accused the Americans of failure to secure the scene after the shooting to enable a proper investigation. The US report on the killing acknowledged that the soldiers had no written rules for mounting a “blocking operation,” but only procedures handed down by the unit they were replacing.

The account also indicated that a communications breakdown contributed to the events that led US troops to open fire. But the US report concluded that the US soldiers followed standard operating procedures. The United States said Calipari had not heeded instructions to halt, and that the American commander had not been informed of his mission. The Italians rejected the American version in its entirety.

“If the American chain of command was not formally informed about the precise details of the mission, it is undeniable that it was told about the arrival of Dr Calipari and the fact that he was on an official mission,” the Italian report said.—AFP