May 5 - Journalist Giuliana Sgrena thought her monthlong Iraq hostage ordeal was over when Italian intelligence agents rescued her on March 4. But just 25 minutes after her release, she faced another danger—this time from U.S. troops. The soldiers, stationed at a military roadblock on the way to Baghdad’s international airport, opened fired on her car, killing agent Nicola Calipari and injuring Sgrena and the Italian driver of the car.

Italian outrage over Calipari’s death has escalated in recent days, following the release of two contradictory reports into the shooting. An American report, released last weekend, exonerated the U.S. soldiers and claimed the Italians had failed to inform them about the operation to free Sgrena. An Italian report, released Monday, rebutted the charges and blamed the killing on fatigued and inexperienced G.I.s staffing poorly run roadblocks.

The incident has caused tensions in the alliance between Rome and Washington, increasing Italian calls for the removal of their country’s 3,000 troops in Iraq. Sgrena spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Cristiana Fabiani about the shooting and her experience as a hostage. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK:  To what extent do you agree with the U.S. and Italian reports about the shooting?
SGRENA: They are very different reports even though they have some parts in common. The American report tries to justify and totally absolve American troops, while, to my pleasant surprise, the Italian one is very documented, even though some parts of it are missing because they are classified. The Italian report takes into consideration several accounts that also appear in the U.S. report, but the [U.S. report] does not highlight some of the contradictions in the accounts made by the U.S. patrol soldiers.

Could you give an example of the contradictions?
One is, for instance, the car’s speed. There was no posted speed limit [and] the fact is that the car could not have gone at a high speed given the road conditions. Moreover, if the car had been going as fast as the U.S. soldiers claim, they would not have had time to make any of the signals they insist they made. The real problem is that the Americans did not make any signal. [Also, according to the U.S. report] only one person in the patrol was in charge of lifting the spotlight, shouting, warning us to stop, shooting warning shots and then shooting straight at us—and all of that within a few seconds. It is clear that he would not have had the time to do all this,

Did you see a light signal?
No. There was no light signal.

Did you see a laser signal?
No. They shot straight at us.

They fired warning shots, didn’t they?
No. The shots arrived straight at us.

What happened when the car approached the roadblock?
We didn’t see any roadblock. We saw nothing. At a certain point, we were on this road and there was a curve. The driver had just said that we were 700 meters [about 770 yards] away from the airport and suddenly we were hit by a light and strafed by a machine gun.

So there was a light?
It was at the same time we were hit, at the time we were shot. The bullets and a beam of light hit us simultaneously.

What happened during and after the shooting?
The driver said, “We are under attack.” Frankly I could not understand who could attack us in that area. The driver shouted, “We are from the Italian Embassy,” from inside the car. Calipari threw himself over me. I fell through the seats. When the fire stopped—it did not last very long, I believe they calculated 15 seconds, but it seems like an eternity when you are there—at some point the soldiers approached….

I was in the back. The soldiers came, looked and realized that Calipari was dead. Calipari wasn’t speaking any longer. I felt his body heavy on me. I tried to lift him up and heard him gasping. Then the soldiers arrived and shook him a little bit. They took me out from the other side, because I was injured. They laid me down outside. They tore off my clothes to see where the injury was because I was bleeding heavily.

The Italian report talks about the involuntary killing of Calipari. But you have said that the shooting could have been intentional.
I can’t say that the killing was intentional, but from the report it seems to me that the creation of an incident was intentional. In any case, all the conditions existed for an incident to happen. Nobody warned the patrol that we were on our way, even though the U.S. command knew at 8:30 p.m. that we were coming on that road.

Why would the Americans have wanted an incident?
You should ask them, but the convoy escorting [U.S. Ambassador John] Negroponte had already arrived at Camp Victory before 8 p.m., so why did [the U.S. command] tell the soldiers that they could not leave their positions? … The road was not closed anymore by the time we arrived [at 8.45 p.m.]. They had closed it previously but at that point it was not closed anymore.

Why would the incident been intentional?
The big controversy is the Italian policy toward hostages: the fact that Italians negotiate with kidnappers and pay ransoms. Americans don’t want it, they’ve always been opposed to it.

American media have reported that the Italian government paid a large ransom to release you. CNN mentioned an amount of $10 million.
I don’t know if a ransom was paid. In any case this amount seems an exaggeration. I believe that there could have been some ransom paid. From what I understood, my kidnappers did not take me to get money—they were more politically motivated. It is very likely that they negotiated on other terms, not only financial.

The fact is that you have been released while French journalist Florence Aubenas and her interpreter Hussein Hanoun have been held hostages in Iraq since Jan. 5.
I believe that Calipari’s killing has contributed to the fact that Florence hasn’t been released yet. Our intelligence had a big presence on the field, because it had already released several hostages. They knew people. Italians were better positioned than the French there. The obstacles put in place by the Americans are even stronger for the French then they are for the Italians, who are strong [U.S.] allies … After our incident, even kidnappers will be more reluctant to get in touch with intelligence officers.

Did your driver make it somehow clear, through his phone calls, that the Americans knew that you were on that road?
As you know, Italians don’t contact Americans directly. They go through a liaison officer. The driver was making phone calls to the officer who was in touch with the Americans, so it was clear that the Americans knew of our arrival … During the entire time I was in the kidnappers’ car waiting to be [handed to the Italian agents] I had an American helicopter stationed over my head. With all the technological means they have at their disposal, do you really believe that they were up there without knowing what was going on below? I don’t think so.

What do you think of the way the shooting inquiry was carried out?
I believe it was done to appease the Italians, although in the end we were not happy with it. Moreover, the Americans destroyed some evidence [by] cleaning up the area where the incident happened. In order to calculate the car’s speed, all one had to do was leave it there and one would have known immediately how fast it was going. Also, if they had left the bullets there they would have known exactly how many had been fired.

Do you have any idea of the identity of the group that kidnapped you?
I have no idea, but I can exclude that it was a terrorist group like [that run by Al Qaeda’s] al-Zarqawi or common criminals.

How long had you been in Iraq, this time, before you were taken hostage?
Ten days

Did you fear for your life during your captivity?
Yes. They never threatened to kill me. On the contrary they always told me that they would not have killed me, unless there had been a rescue attempt. But how can you trust anybody in a situation like that one?

Did they treat you well?
I was a prisoner, locked up, but in material things they treated me well. I was not blindfolded.

Are you undergoing daily physical therapy for the shoulder injured in the shooting? 
Yes, for my shoulder and my arm. My shoulder was totally reconstructed and they did a good job, too. I had a bullet hole with a 4cm [almost 1.6 inches] diameter. I had surgery at the military hospital in Rome.

Do you have any idea of when you’ll be able to go back to work?
No, they tell me I need to wait for months. I hope it will be less. It’s very hard. I cannot use the computer, and I am still very confused mentally, I cannot write nor read. I cannot read a book.

Will you go back to Iraq?
I will not go back to Iraq unless the situation changes. I have no prospects of working there under the current conditions. If I go there I want to have the chance to talk to people, I don’t want to remain in a hotel. And I don’t want to go around escorted by the military. This is not the way I work, and I discovered that there I cannot do otherwise.

Would you go back to another war zone as a journalist?
Yes, as soon as I get well.

What’s your wish for the future of Iraq?
I wish all the troops would withdraw.

And your wish for your own future?
I know my life has changed and so have my priorities, but I am unable to make plans or projects at this point. I need to get over this phase. After my release I had a moment when I felt free from the nightmare, and then the shooting stopped everything. I don’t feel free yet.