Wider Angle: US troops open fire on Italian hostage

As if this woman hasn't been through enough. Way to go guys.

UPDATE
This is undoubtedly a tragedy, but I cannot place any blame on the soldiers for what happened. It was a very unfortunate accident, however almost every troop in Iraq is being sent there without adequate training, and they don't have many rules. They try to follow the ones they have and this was one of them. The result was bad, but why didn't the driver stop? The soldiers were only trying to do their jobs with what painfully little information they had.

Ben

Sgrena's partner said he could not fault the U.S. soldiers, telling Reuters they were probably "scared boys," and the blame lay with those who had sent them to Iraq.

But CNN's Alessio Vinci reported that Saturday's Il Manifesto newspaper had accused U.S. forces of "assassinating" Calipari.

In a written statement, Multnational Forces said that at 9 p.m. (1800 GMT) they opened fire on a vehicle that was approaching a checkpoint at a high speed.

U.S. troops "attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car," the statement said.

"When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."

CNN's Nic Robertson said coalition forces's rule of engagement permit them to use escalating levels of force if they felt threatened. They can use lethal force, for example, if a car refuses to stop for a checkpoint.

The road where the incident took place, near Baghdad's airport, was particularly dangerous, Robertson added.