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View larger image Reuters 12/03/2005 Phil Stewart Italy's justice minister urged former hostage Giuliana Sgrena on Friday t o stop making "careless" accusations after being shot by US forces in Ba ghdad, saying she had already caused enough grief. Sgrena has repeatedly suggesting US soldiers shot her on purpose and said on Friday she had little faith in a joint investigation by Italy and th e United States into the "friendly fire" incident. "She has created enormous problems for the government and also caused gri ef that perhaps was better avoided," Justice Minister Roberto Castelli t old reporters in Bologna. Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was shot dead by US forces a s he shielded the newly freed hostage while taking her to the airport. Sgrena herself said in interviews this week that had she been more cautio us in Baghdad, she perhaps would not have been kidnapped in the first pl ace. The award-winning war reporter, who works for Communist newspaper Il Mani festo, was abducted as she conducted interviews outside Baghdad Universi ty and held for a month. Many Italians have been irked by her descriptions of her kidnappers. She said they were not killers and that she may have over-dramatised her vid eotaped appeal from captivity for Italy to withdraw its 3,000 troops fro m Iraq. She sobbed in the video and begged her family and the government to do so mething to save her life. She has said a load of nonsense, speaks somewhat carelessly and makes careless comments," Caste lli said. The US army says Sgrena's vehicle sped toward the checkpoint outside the airport and ignored warning shots, an explanation rejected by Rome and t he car's driver. Italy's centre-right government, while rejecting any hint that the shooti ng was intentional, has until now largely refrained from directly critic ising Sgrena. Sgrena has told ANSA news agency she does not expect official inquiries i nto the incident to produce results "because we know how they end up". "I feel like I'm being accused for being kidnapped and then saved," Sgren a said, speaking from a Rome hospital, where she is undergoing treatment for her injuries.
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