Posted on 01/02/2004 6:31:59 PM PST by witnesstothefall
BAGHDAD - American soldiers on Friday detained three Iraqis working for Reuters as they covered the aftermath of a U.S. helicopter crash near the volatile town of Falluja.
A Reuters driver who was working with the three said they had earlier been fired on by U.S. troops as they filmed a checkpoint close to the site where a Kiowa observation helicopter was shot down by guerrillas.
One pilot was killed and another injured in the crash.
"We were fired on and we drove away at high speed," driver Alaa Noury said. He said Reuters cameraman Salem Uraiby had been filming the checkpoint using a camera on a tripod, and had been wearing a flak jacket clearly marked with the word "press".
Noury said a second car driven by another Iraqi journalist had been fired upon in the same incident.
Noury returned to Baghdad with the footage that had been shot while Uraiby remained in Falluja to continue filming along with an Iraqi stringer and driver.
Reuters was later told by the U.S. military that the three men had been detained, but was not informed of any allegations against them.
A U.S. army spokesman separately told a news conference in Baghdad that guerrillas posing as journalists had fired on American paratroopers guarding the crash site and four were later detained.
"Paratroopers securing the Kiowa helicopter crash site were fired upon by enemy personnel posing as media this afternoon at approximately 1400 hours (1100 GMT)," Kimmitt said.
"The five enemy personnel pulled up to the crash site driving black and blue dark Mercedes. They were wearing black press jackets with 'press' written in English. The enemy personnel fired upon U.S. forces with small arms and RPGs."
Kimmitt said no U.S. soldiers were wounded in the incident.
"We tracked one of the Mercedes to a nearby house and captured four enemy personnel who are now being questioned," he said.
In August, award-winning Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was shot dead by a U.S. soldier as he filmed in a town on the western outskirts of Baghdad. The U.S. military said the soldier who killed him believed his camera was a grenade launcher.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
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10.00 |
461 |
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But, then, so are Belgians working for Reuters...
WTF difference does that make? Any motivated infiltrator can get their hands on a flak jacket marked "press".
Right. He probably said this as he scrubbed the powder burns off his hands.
He's probably working out of Robert Fisk's guerrilla cell. Fisk hasn't put down his RPG long enough to be heard from lately. Probably trying to figure out how to bust his buddy Saddam out of the pokie.
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