Soldier on trial for fatal shooting

“IF YOU hesitate, you come home in a box and I didn’t want to come home in a box,” said Mario Lozano, the American soldier being tried for murder after fatally shooting an Italian military intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Baghdad in 2005.

He was speaking to the US media in New York on the eve of his trial in absentia in Rome.

The shooting occurred when two Italian agents were driving towards Baghdad Airport having secured the release of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena.