Verified. An Afghan cameraman got footage of parts of the convoy departing the error. One machinegunner fired a short burst into the air. No Americans engaged the rioters--that was done by the Afghan Security Forces--justifiably in most cases. However, Barbara Starr of CNN, who is here in Kabul, reported that the Americans fired "in the direction of civilians on a hillside" while the video footage showed the HMMWV going down the road with the machine gun pointed high into the air. First, there was no hill visible in the video. Second, Barbara Starr was not at the accident site since she never left the same base I am at. Third, all casualties took place in town, not on a "hillside".
We're hauling her around, putting her up in nice billets while many of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines live on cots in tents; yet she could not pass up her chance to put some extraneous B.S into a story to cast our soldiers in a negative light.
SHOULD READ: "..of the convoy departing the accident scene."
mark502inf's on-site reality report needs spread around and the CNN Presstitute needs to be "Maped-n-Rathered." Home for a quick lunch and don't have access to my ping list.