Italy mourns at state funeral of 'hero' intelligence officer

I don't want to blame the soldiers but I think they're not well trained for a 'peace keeping' mission.

That's neither here nor there in this situ. Given that the Italians were within 1000 yards of the Baghdad airport, they should have expected to encounter soldiers and not 'peacekeepers'. Here's one perspective on Baghdad's Airport Road:

Traveling on a Highway of Dread

The unanswered questions are why the Italians didn't inform anyone--coalition, Iraqi...--of what they were up to & why they were trying to slip out of town without making an accounting, answering questions or providing information that would lead to the apprehension of the 'kidnappers'. Baghdad certainly isn't 'safer' because of what they did--and if they paid ransom or were complicit in an extortion scheme, Baghdad is less safe as a result.

And then, we could get into the subject of the Italians' total disregard for the sovereignty of Iraq, a nation in which Sgrena was a 'guest'.

So according to the division it was not a checkpoint. It was a patrol.

'Checkpoints' are fixed targets. 'Patrols' are moving ones. Think about it.

Encountering a 'patrol' within 1000 yards of Baghdad Airport is something to be expected.

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