This is just a scene from hell/Transcript: N.Iraq friendly fire; "Shut up. I'm broadcasting!.."

BBC ^ | Sunday, 6 April, 2003, 09:50 GMT 10:50 UK | John Simpson

[Int]

This is just a scene from hell'

The BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson has been injured in Northern Iraq in an apparent mistaken attack on a US special forces convoy by one of their own planes.

Moments after the attack, John Simpson broadcast live by satellite telephone on the BBC news channel, News 24.

This is a really bad own goal by the Americans John Simpson "Well it's a bit of a disaster... I was in a convoy of eight or 10 cars in northern Iraq coming up to a place that has just recently been captured. American special forces in a truck - two trucks I think - beside them, plus a very senior figure ..."

Simpson to US soldier: "Shut up. I'm broadcasting! Oh yes, I'm fine - am I bleeding."

US soldier: "Yes, you've got a cut."

Simpson: "I thought you were going to stop me. I think I've just got a bit of shrapnel in the leg, that's all. OK, I will - thanks a lot.

"That was one of the American special forces medics - I thought he was going to try to stop me reporting. I've counted 10 or 12 bodies around us. So there are Americans dead. It was an American plane that dropped the bomb right beside us - I saw it land about 10 feet, 12 feet away I think.

"We were so close to the damage and - it didn't damage us badly at any rate. This is just a scene from hell here. All the vehicles on fire. There are bodies burning around me, there are bodies lying around, there are bits of bodies on the ground. This is a really bad own goal by the Americans.

"We don't really know how many Americans are dead. There is ammunition exploding in fact from some of these cars. A very senior member of the Kurdish Republic's government who also may have been injured."

TV presenter Maxine Mawhinney: "John, just to recap for the viewers, an American plane dropped a bomb on your convoy of American special forces - many dead, many injured?"

Simpson: "I am sorry to be so excitable. I am bleeding through the ear and everything but that is absolutely the case. I saw this American convoy, and they bombed it. They hit their own people - they may have hit this Kurdish figure - very senior, and they've killed a lot of ordinary characters, and I am just looking at the bodies now and it is not a very pretty sight."

[sweetliberty]

I really like Rick Levanthal and think he has done an amazing job and that he does identify closely with the troops. I did kind of a double take on the incident that you referred to as well, but I don't recall if that was Levanthal or Kelly.

I guess I can see it from both sides and have mixed feelings about it. I guess what really bothers me is the possiblity of some event being misinterpreted, or worse, reported falsely, putting soldiers in the position of having to defend themselves and in the future not being able to focus as completely as they should on the task at hand for always having to worry about how something will play to the cameras or how it will perceived back home.

[MeekOneGOP]

hehehehe !

[a_Turk]

18 Kurds dead, 45 wounded. Two of Mesut Barzani' (KDP leader) brothers were there, one is dead the other airlifted to Turkey for surgery.

[sweetliberty]

[wireplay]

I am pretty sure Rick Leventhal is a marine officer, helicopter pilot, and is in the reserves.

Pentagon is saying that NO Americans were killed but that several of our Kurdish allies were killed. Definitely a friendly fire incident according to Major Garrett.

[MeekOneGOP]

LOL ! For his own good ! hehehe !

[wireplay]

My mistake. It seems that Greg Kelly is the former Marine.

[a_Turk]

I just listened to a press briefing by the KDP spokesman Hoshyar Zebari, who speculated that the pilot might have mistaken the tanks the Peshmerga had taken for an advancing Iraki column..

Also, I heard two other accounts of this where only one Barzani brother was mentioned, not two as I had put it in my prior message.

[Teetop]

Simpson to US soldier: "Shut up. I'm broadcasting! Oh yes, I'm fine - am I bleeding."

What an asshole! (No other word describe this "reporter", moderator) He is lucky I wasn't there, London would of heard a BLAM! And then me saying, "ooops, my weapon discharged accidentally London!" The depths that the Baghdad Broadcasting Company goes these days doesn't surprise me anymore.....

[Kevin Curry]

Any HE, even a grenade would have blast effects considerably worse

Unless he was shielded by a heavier mass, the overpressure from even a 500 pound run-of-the-mill dumb bomb detonating 10 feet away would reordered and scrambled Simpson's skeleton and internal organs in imaginative and bizarre shapes, pieces, and forms.

[Mad Dawgg]

"If an American bomb landed 10 to 12 feet from this guy he would be dead, IMHO."

If it was a 500 pounder the Crater would be bigger than 12 feet! If it was A cluster Bomb he would be dead at 12 feet!

[a_Turk]

Seeing how about a dozen vehicles including a tank or two were destroyed, it had to be a pretty good size bomb and maybe even more than just one..

[kimmie7]

Rick Leventhal(?) impressive too, even though I wondered if he had enlisted. It's "we" this and "we" that and if someone wasn't sitting really close to him yesterday talking, I think it was him calling out to a solider (by name) to "watch out and then yelled don't shoot him, he's surrendering "lol

That was G. Kelly, former Marine.

[CindyDawg]

That was G. Kelly, former Marine

You sure? I thought it was RL. Anyway, my point was that right or wrong (depending on your views) some run to help and others run to the camera.

[GrandmaPatriot]

The incident you were talking about was with Gregg Kelly. I think Rick Leventhal is a bit whinny at times. Of course Olie is doing fantastic.

[Slings and Arrows]

This is a really bad own goal by the Americans.

Unusual way to describe a "friendly fire" incident, but certainly accurate.

A British friend of mine once said that in England "work accidents" are called "own goals." Same principle, I'd imagine.

[kimmie7]

Point taken. My opinion is that G. Kelly is doing an excellent job. The reason he was on camera? His transport was on the move. They didn't even slow down for the surrender. The vehicle behind them did. 'Twas some amazing video. Have a great day! :)

[FairOpinion]

Friendly fire is always tragic.

Here is more info from FoxNews:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83330,00.html

U.S. Friendly Fire Kills 17 Kurds

Sunday, April 06, 2003


IRBIL, Iraq — U.S. aircraft mistakenly bombed a convoy of allied Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 17 Kurdish fighters and wounding 45, including a brother of the man who runs half the Kurdish enclave, a spokesman for the leader's party said.

The bombing came when Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters and U.S. Special Forces called in airstrikes during heavy fighting with Iraqi forces at a strategic crossroads south of Irbil, the party official said.

Hoshyar Zebari, a senior member of the governing Kurdistan Democratic Party, said two or three Americans may have been wounded, but he "didn't think" any were killed.

Among the wounded was Wajy Barzani, younger brother of KDP leader Massoud Barzani, who controls the western sector of Kurdish autonomous enclave.

The younger Barzani was treated in intensive care and then flown out by U.S. helicopter en route to a hospital in Germany, Zebari told reporters at a hospital in Irbil where the wounded were taken. But he gave no details on his injuries.

Three senior KDP military commanders, Saeed Abdullah, Abdul Rahman and Mamasta Hehman, also were among the injured.

The bombing "will not undermine our resolve to work together," Zebari said of the alliance with the U.S. military against the forces of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Massoud Barzani and the entire top ranks of the KDP were at the hospital, along with U.S. officers. The Americans' military vehicles were parked outside the hospital where a huge throng had gathered at the entrance. Relatives of the wounded were escorted through the crowds.

One U.S. officer said no American casualties were at the hospital and that he did not know if Americans were injured.

U.S. Special Forces have been working alongside Kurdish fighters, helping plan the assault against Iraqi forces in the north and calling in airstrikes to support the Kurds' advance into Baghdad-controlled territory.

Zebari said the friendly fire bombing took place during "serious fighting" near Dibagah, 25 miles south of Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region and center for KDP rule.

They called in close air support, he said, and "two U.S. planes mistakenly bombed" the convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles, which was stationary at the time, Zebari said.

British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent John Simpson reported from the scene of the incident, saying the convoy contained between eight and 10 cars, two of which carried U.S. Special Forces troops.

"This is just a scene from hell here," Simpson said. "All the vehicles on fire, there are bodies burning around me, bodies lying around, bits of bodies on the ground. ... The Americans saw this convoy and they bombed it. They hit their own people."

The BBC said Simpson was wounded in the leg by shrapnel.

Zebari said the BBC crew was not "embedded" but was traveling along with the convoy.

The Kurdish and American force apparently had pushed the Iraqis out of Dibagah, which is on a key road between the major Baghdad-controlled cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, and control of it could be a pivotal victory.

But after the bombing accident, the convoy pulled back. The outcome of the battle was not immediately clear.

[CindyDawg]

I think GK is doing an excellent job also. I just don't see as much of his reporting because I'm at work. Fox chose well. I don't care much for GR, probably unfairly because of his baggage but I don't think even he meant any harm and he seems to bond well with the troops also.

[ladyinred]

I heard this reporter on air, and it was quite a report. Of course this was an accident of war, a tragic one for sure, but certainly not a goal of the American military. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was during extreme stress, but it is hard to with those remarks.