Italian prosecutors called on Monday for the indictment of a US soldier for the shooting of an Italian intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Iraq last year.
The request that Mario Lozano, a national guardsman from New York, be charged with the murder of Nicola Calipari, a military intelligence officer, was signed by four Rome prosecutors. They referred to the shooting as a "political crime" which harmed Italy's interests.
The demand was likely to sour US-Italian relations already affected by the defeat, in a general election in April, of Silvio Berlusconi, a close ally of the Bush administration.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has called the invasion of Iraq "a grave mistake" and is withdrawing Italian troops from the country, but has said Italy will continue to help rebuild Iraq.
Calipari was killed on March 4 last year while he was escorting an Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, to safety after she had been released from insurgents who had kidnapped her. At least one US soldier manning a checkpoint on the airport road fired on the car in which they were traveling toward the airport. Sgrena and another Italian agent were wounded.
RSS