Italian Red Cross workers smuggled four wounded Iraqi insurgents through US roadblocks as part of a deal to free two aid workers kidnapped in Baghdad, it emerged on Thursday.
Maurizio Scelli, outgoing head of the Italian Red Cross, said they hid "four alleged terrorists" under blankets and boxes of medicines in a jeep and an ambulance so they could be treated for injuries sustained in combat. Three of the four had surgery.
Scelli's revelation about the release of the aid workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta sparked an embarrassing political row for the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who has always denied bowing to ransom demands in Iraq.
The senior Red Cross official said the Italian government had no direct involvement in the plan but had been told about it. The deal included an undertaking to treat ill Iraqi children and was kept secret from US officials, he said.
Scelli also revealed yesterday that Nicola Calipari, the Italince agent shot dead in March by US troops at a Baghdad checkpoint during the release of another Italian hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, was involved in the deal.
Scelli said he consulted Calipari, who agreed that no one should know of the rescue. Scelli told La Stampa: "Keeping the Americans in the dark about our efforts to free the hostages was a non-negotiable condition to guarantee the safety of the hostages and ourselves."
He described Calipari as "extraordinary. He took on a lot of responsibility against the will of his superiors."
Calipari's death sparked a major row between Rome and Washington, as Italy refused to accept the Pentagon's version of events that Calipari's car did not slow down at a checkpoint.
Scelli further claimed that Gianni Letta, an under-secretary in Berlusconi's administration in charge of Italy's hostage crises in Iraq, had agreed with the decision to keep the Americans in the dark.
The Italian government did not issue a complete denial of the allegations. It said the Italian Red Cross was a neutral organization and that Scelli had acted independently. It said Italy maintained "a full and reciprocal" cooperation with the US allies in Iraq. But this was not enough to mollify opposition politicians, who have demanded a full explanation from the government.
"If Scelli's story is true, the government has a moral and political obligation to come to parliament and explain itself immediately," said Ellettra Deiana of the Rifondazione Communista party.
Scelli said he was approached by mediators who said they could secure the release of the two women, abducted on Sept. 7 last year.
"The mediators asked us to save the lives of four alleged terrorists, wanted by the Americans, who were wounded in combat," he said.
"It was not an easy thing to do. We had medics ready at our hospital in Baghdad but we had to get the wounded there without the Americans discovering them."
The women were released after being held for 21 days.
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