GIs Mistakenly Kill Italian Envoy Aide

Yahoooooooooooooooo via AP ^ | 9/19/03

[areafiftyone]

ROME - American soldiers in northern Iraq (news - web sites) mistakenly fired on a car carrying the Italian official heading up U.S. efforts to recover Iraq's looted antiquities, killing the man's Iraqi interpreter, an official said Friday in Rome. The Italian, Pietro Cordone, was unhurt.

Cordone, who is the senior adviser for cultural affairs of the U.S. provisional authority and the top Italian diplomat in the country, was traveling between Mosul and Tikrit on Thursday when his car was fired on at a U.S. roadblock, said a Foreign Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said American troops fired at the car, and that Cordone's Iraqi interpreter was killed.

The official said it appeared the car's driver did not understand signals from the American troops, and that the Americans didn't understand what the car was trying to do.

U.S. officials expressed regret over the incident, the Foreign Ministry said.

Cordone, who was born in Egypt and has spent his diplomatic career in the Arab world, was appointed in May to head up the coalition office responsible for finding and restoring Iraq's looted antiquities.

He was at the Iraqi National Museum last week when three men returned the Vase of Warka, a 5,000-year-old white limestone vessel that is one of the most valuable of the museum's artifacts.

The museum, once the home of rare Islamic texts and priceless, millennia-old collections from the Assyrian, Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations, was plundered in the chaos that followed the fall of Baghdad on April 9.

The destruction triggered an international uproar, with many curators and archaeologists from around the world blaming the United States for failing to protect the institution.

When he was named to his position, Italian Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani said Cordone's task was to recover "one of the most important artistic patrimonies" in the world.

[samtheman]

American soldiers in northern Iraq (news - web sites) mistakenly fired on a car carrying the Italian official

Sorry about that. We thought the car was carrying a French official.

[First_Salute]

Prayers for the family and our good allies.

Caution for all who think this story is anything but sad.

[piasa]

bump

[Straight Vermonter]

A previously posted article on FR stated that the hand outstretched, palm forward signal that westerners use to mean stop is not known to Arabs. This has apparently led to several misunderstandings at roadblocks.

I can't speak to the veracity of this but the article was supposedly quoting a US serviceman.

[river rat]

"....the hand outstretched, palm forward signal that westerners use to mean stop is not known to Arabs."

Sounds like they're slow or unwilling learners...

In a war zone - that can get your ass killed...

Semper Fi

[Steel Wolf]

Even if that particular driver didn't recognize the international hand guesture for stop, the Western passenger did. Another poster mentioned that checkpoints in many countries will use the same protocol, and he's right. I've never been to an Arab country, but it's the standard everywhere else. I'd be very suprised if anyone were completely unaware, especially months into our occupation, of what we wanted them to do at a checkpoint.

Even the local Iraqi's have figured out how seriously we take the checkpoints. The guards are dealing with active and numerous carbomb threats, and have only seconds to make the call. The envoy was criminally negligent for not ensuring his driver knew what to do.

That having been said, I don't think this was a case of ignorance. It sounds more like overconfidence.

[SunkenCiv]