Posted on 06/07/2004 9:12:12 AM PDT by Eurotwit
Riddled with bullets, BBC correspondent Frank Gardner pleaded for his life in the Saudi capital shouting to bystanders to help a fellow Muslim, a police officer told AFP yesterday.
"I'm a Muslim, help me, I'm a Muslim, help me," the British father of two daughters cried in Arabic, the officer said.
Gardner was stretched on the road, covered in blood from multiple bullet wounds in a slum area of southern Riyadh known as a hotbed of hardliners.
A fluent Arabic speaker with a degree in Arab and Islamic Studies, he was carrying a small copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, a device used by Westerner reporters to try to reassure Islamist militants.
He was gravely wounded and his Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers killed Sunday evening as they filmed near the home of Ibrahim al-Rayyes, a wanted terror suspect killed in a clash with security forces in the area last December.
Gardner was in a coma yesterday at King Faisal Specialist Hospital after undergoing emergency surgery.
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Advertisement "He is in a coma and very critical," one doctor said, adding however that bleeding had stopped and "he has improved in the last six hours."
The 42-year-old was hit by many bullets to the stomach and feet and transferred to the capital's Al-Iman Hospital.
Saudi newspapers reported that the gunmen had left him for dead.
"Frank is in a critical but stable condition in intensive care after surgery," a British embassy spokesperson told AFP earlier yesterday.
He shoulda yelled out the code words before they shot him.
I guess they don't teach everything in school.
Wow! What are they selling?
That's another little understood rule of Islam ~ that Moslems don't kill other Moslems unless they feel like it.
Bump
Yeah, I know.. Death, death, and more death is all they offer to themselves and us.
What a shame. I must mourn for awhile.
Well that was long enough.
So he begged for help from "fellow Muslims" - did they offer him help? How long did he lie in the street before being transported to a hospital?
will the BBC characterize this as an "attack"?
Maybe simply being muslim isn't enough for these terrorists. Maybe they didn't like the way he looked.
Either way, what does it tell us that a man riddled with bullets would need to claim his "Islamicity" in order to be helped by random bystanders? If he proclaimed himself a Christian, can we assume they would have shot him some more?
What's the deal with that footage--an Arab TV station "just happened" to be there when these guys were shot?
Yes, this is not uncommon in Islam. I have Muslim relatives who were going to travel in the ME shortly after 9/11. They told me this is what they would say ("I am a Muslim.") if they were ever threatened for having U.S. citizenship or "looking like Americans".
Terrorists don't care one way or the other about muslims. Its just a standard excuse like blaming America. The only "good muslims" in the eyes of the terrorists are those who are actively killing anyone who isn't a terrorist.
An attack on a BBC Muslim? Gee, I feel just terrible about this. I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you! S/O.
An undated BBC handout picture shows their British journalist Frank Gardner. who was shot and injured in the Saudi capital Riyadh June 6, 2004. Gunmen fired at a two-man BBC crew in an Islamist militant area of Riyadh on Sunday, killing Irish cameraman Simon Cumber and severely wounding Gardner. (EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO SALES. NO ARCHIVE) REUTERS/BBC TV via Reuters Television
Your post expresses my thoughts very well.
Why should muslims care if they kill other muslims anyway? More muslims have been killed by fellow muslims than any other nationality or faith.
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