Sgrena told colleagues the vehicle was not travelling fast and had already passed several checkpoints on its way to the airport. The Americans shone a flashlight at the car and then fired between 300 and 400 bullets at if from an armoured vehicle. Rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded Italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with Rome for more than an hour.
UPDATE - it turns out that the car pictured was only tangentially related to the original kidnapping. LGF unravels the whole mess, created by a misleading AP video.
If you watch the Associated Press video linked above, you'll see a medium shot of this car, changing to a closeup, as the voice-over says, "Coalition forces fired on a vehicle that was approaching a checkpoint at a high rate of speed."
Every report I seen says that the soldiers fired warning shots and they refused to stop.
This story was not unexpected as she does work for some communist anti-american paper in italy.
More here http://www.soldierlife.com/
300 to 400 shots and how many hit? From the looks of the picture, a handfull or so. The picture contradicts the commie's story and supports that of the US soldiers.
Had 300 - 400 rounds from an armored vehicle been fired at the vehicle you'd be seeing a picture where your first thought would be "that was a car?"
I got out a while ago and the guns may have changed but armored vehicles normally carried M60's (7.62mm) and M2's (.50 caliber). M60's are used on enemy troops (and really mean guys might use the .50), and the M2 is used on vehicles or any kind of equipment sort of things or buildings.
But really, 300 - 400 rounds of even the smaller rifle ammunition and she lived through it? Looks like a couple richochets out the fender on the left which would back the story of shooting at the engine block.
As for the confiscation that's the stupidest thing I've ever hear. Of course the first thing they did was take their weapons. As for the cell phones, for what - so they could call their lawyers? Doesn't happen in a war zone. OTOH, cell phones are used quite often to detonate explosives over there.
(side note - see that picture of the cell phone attached to a bomb with a "call failed" message on it?)
Have to agree here, not much hit that car. This lady is just a dumb ass lefty trying to get attention. Rummer has it that this may have also been staged, as she still has her head. Unlike the other hostages.
Maybe that pic was taken from James Roszko's backyard?
Well, it looks like the car pictured at LGF is NOT the car that was shot atm but some other one.
But the point remains, I think, if someone fired 3-400 rounds, from anything that's mounted on an armoured vehicle, at a normal sedan it would look like a colander and everyone inside would be dead or greivously injured.
Conclusion: the balance of the evidence suggest they weren't aiming to kill that car very seriously, i.e. they were firing warning shots IF they indeed fired, and consequently Ms. Reporter's story is dubious.
Will Springsteen be penning a song about this...?
The US military side of the story rings true and the journalist's story does not. What would the US forces have to gain by shooting up the car of an "escaping" journalist?
And if they had intended to kill everyone, they'd all be dead. 300-400 rounds of 7.62 ammo would have turned the car into a seive and that amount of 50 cal. would have ... well they'd still be picking up the pieces.
Based on this woman "reporters" mindset....I wouldn't be terribly upset if they let the Iraqi's keep her. In fact, I'm sure that after listening to this nut-bars ranting for over a month, the Iraqi's PAID THE ITALIANS to come and get her back.
Or...as is more likely, she had some Iraqi friends who needed some cash so she decided to help them out....and get some publicity along the way. :)