Last updated on: October 30, 2009 11:29 PM
Italy's prime minister has confirmed that U.S. forces in Iraq opened fire on a car carrying a freed Italian hostage and her rescuers, Friday.
Silvio Berlusconi said freed journalist Giuliana Sgrena sustained a shoulder injury and an Italian agent who helped free her was killed. Mr. Berlusconi said he has summoned the American ambassador in Rome for an explanation of the incident.
Executives at Ms. Sgrena's newspaper, Il Manifesto, said the shooting occurred at a coalition checkpoint as the car headed to Baghdad airport.
A spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad told VOA they are looking into press reports about the incident, but had no information.
Gunmen abducted Ms. Sgrena outside a Baghdad mosque on February 4. She later appeared in a video appeal for Italian troops to leave Iraq.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.