ok ...lets ignore all the grammatical errors in his comment and focus on the main idea....the question was "why did they get shot?"...the answer is because the American soldiers working the checkpoint to enter the American base probably thought it was a possible car bombing attack and felt that "deadly force" was necessary in the situation.....now I'm sure that the soldiers at the check point were told to open fire on anyone driving a car through the maze of barriers set up to prevent car bombings if they failed to follow the procedure the entrance signs "outlined"...these signs are surely written in at least two languages if not more...don't know if italian was one of the languages but if you are "doing rescues" in another country, it's necessary to know the language or have an interpretor...if the speed limit says 10 mph you had better not be doing 50 mph (and yes I know about the Km thing)...this same thing has happened in our own country when a Group leader tried to test out the effiency of his men by running the check point at a nuclear sub base....he caught a bullet to the head because he didn't follow the checkpoint procedure...a full investigation followed which cleared the soldiers which will probably be the case in this situation....just to let you know the superiors in charge of this situation will not hesitate to place the blame on a "grunt" as seen in the prisoner abuse scandal that previously "haunted" American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan if any "wrong doing" is found in the investigation...read into that last statement as you will...most likely, nobody of importance stands to be accused if it is found that a communication breakdown caused the shooting....still if I was driving a non-military vehicle through a checkpoint I would follow the rules explicitly....I would be tempted to walk with my hand above my head in the universal surrender pose towards the gate just so that no mistake could be made...those soldiers are not using BB guns and they are told to shoot first and ask questions later