A U.S. soldier is being investigated in the killing in March in Baghdad of an Italian Secret Service agent, a prosecutor and news reports said Thursday.

The agent was Nicola Calipari. He had just won the release of an Italian journalist held hostage when he was killed March 4 by U.S. gunfire near a checkpoint as he headed to the Baghdad airport.

With him was Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who had been held hostage by militants for a month.
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Prosecutor Franco Ionta confirmed reports in Italian news that the soldier was being investigated, but he refused to discuss details.

The reports said prosecutors were considering charging the soldier with murder. Prosecutors did not identify the soldier, who is believed to have been the only one in a group of solders at the checkpoint to have fired at Calipari's car.

According to the news agency Apcom, prosecutors also are considering attempted murder charges to cover the two other people in the car - Sgrena and a second Secret Service agent, who was driving. Both were wounded.

The U.S. Embassy in Rome declined to identify the soldier or to comment on the report.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "This was a tragic situation, but as far as we are concerned, the matter is closed."

Italy and the United States have issued separate reports on the killing, which has strained relations.

The Italian government issued its report in May. It accused U.S. military authorities of failing to signal that a military checkpoint was ahead on the road. The report also contended that stress, inexperience and fatigue had played a role in the shooting.

The Americans insisted that the car - a rented Toyota Corolla - had been going fast enough to alarm the soldiers. The Italians have said the vehicle was traveling slowly on the dark, rain-slicked road.

Police and ballistic experts assigned by Rome prosecutors to examine the car have concluded the Toyota was traveling more slowly than the U.S. military claimed. But they agreed with U.S. findings that only one soldier had fired at the car.

The shooting angered Italians, already largely opposed to the war in Iraq. The incident led many to step up calls for withdrawing the Italian contingent.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi sent 3,000 soldiers to Iraq after Saddam Hussein's ouster. Berlusoni has insisted that the incident would affect neither troop levels nor Italy's friendship with the United States.

Berlusconi met with U.S. Ambassador Ronald Spogli on Thursday. But they didn't discuss the shooting, Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said.

Roma - Si chiama Mario Lozano il marine USA che sparò all'auto di Nicola Calipari e che, per questo, è stato iscritto nel registro degli indagati della Procura di Roma con il reato di omicidio volontario. Nei giorni scorsi il pm della Procura romana, Franco Ionta, insieme a Pietro Saviotti ed Erminio Amelio avevano predisposto una rogatoria finalizzata a identificare i componenti della pattuglia americana. 

Nicola Calipari era un funzionario della Polizia di Stato e dei servizi segreti italiani del SISMI, ucciso da colpi di arma da fuoco esplosi da soldati statunitensi in Iraq, nelle fasi immediatamente successive alla liberazione della giornalista de Il manifesto Giuliana Sgrena. La sua morte ha innescato una frizione diplomatica fra Italia e Stati Uniti d'America, e la magistratura italiana ha aperto un'inchiesta sulla vicenda. 

Calipari era già stato mediatore, sempre nei territori dell'Iraq, nelle concluse trattative per la liberazione di Simona Pari e Simona Torretta. Chi lo ha conosciuto lo descrive come una persona di particolari intelligenza e capacità. 
 

News ITALIA PRESS