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The Baghdad donkey bomb was a bust, but it - and rockets fired from donkey carts - showed an increasingly "adaptive" and "ingenious enemy," a U.S. commander said. Iraq rebels fired up to three rockets from a cart early yesterday at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel - home to many journalists and U.S. civilian workers - one of which missed and hit the nearby Sheraton, said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt. Almost simultaneously, at least seven rockets were fired from another cart at the Iraqi Oil Ministry, setting parts of it ablaze but injuring no one, he said. Two more rocket-armed carts...

Rockets on donkeys hit major Baghdad sites By P. MITCHELL PROTHERO Published 11/21/2003 11:13 AM View printer-friendly version BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Rockets fired from donkey-drawn carts struck two major hotels used by foreign journalists and the Iraqi Ministry of Oil Friday in a barrage that shook downtown Baghdad. The Palestine and Sheraton Hotels, which are adjacent, were hit by a series of rockets fired by one unmanned donkey-drawn cart in the central Saydoon neighborhood of Baghdad at about 7:15 a.m. At about the same time, another series of rockets - also fired from an unmanned cart -...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Rockets fired from donkey-drawn carts struck two major hotels used by foreign journalists and the Iraqi Ministry of Oil Friday in a barrage that shook downtown Baghdad. The Palestine and Sheraton Hotels, which are adjacent, were hit by a series of rockets fired by one unmanned donkey-drawn cart in the central Saydoon neighborhood of Baghdad at about 7:15 a.m. At about the same time, another series of rockets - also fired from an unmanned cart - hit the Oil Ministry, igniting a fire on the fifth floor of the sprawling office building, which was...

Baghdad Rocket Attacks Are 'Militarily Insignificant' By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2003 – Unconventional rocket attacks that struck the Iraqi oil ministry and two hotels in Baghdad today indicate insurgents' increasing difficulty in carrying out assaults against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, according to a senior U.S. military officer. Donkey-cart-launched rockets hit the Palestine and Sheraton hotels as well as the ministry building, Army Brig. Gen. Mark T. Kimmitt, deputy director for operations for Combined Joint Task Force 7 in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad press conference. "Clearly, the enemy has been taking...

Press Clips by Cynthia CottsThey Shoot Journeys, Don't They? CPJ Calls Hotel Palestine Deaths Avoidable June 4 - 10, 2003 New evidence suggests that a war crime may have taken place in Baghdad on April 8. That morning, Taras Protsyuk, a Ukraine-born cameraman employed by Reuters, was standing on the 15th-floor balcony of the Palestine Hotel. José Couso, an employee of the Spanish news company Telcinco, was filming from a balcony one floor below. Suddenly a U.S. tank less than a mile away fired a single round at the hotel, hitting the 15th-floor balcony. Protsyuk was found lying on his...

BAGHDAD - A large explosion in the centre of Baghdad on Friday could be felt kilometres away. A cloud of smoke was seen rising from the direction of Martyrs' Square, where the U.S. military has a base. Few details are yet available about the explosion. Witnesses felt the blast about six kilometres away at the Palestine Hotel.

Just reporting...no details at this time.

LONDON, Aug. 18 — International journalists' groups and Reuters demanded today that the American military hold a full public inquiry into the death of a Reuters cameraman who was fatally shot by American soldiers in Iraq on Sunday as he filmed outside a prison. The cameraman, Mazen Dana, 43, was the second Reuters journalist to be killed by American troops in Iraq since the invasion began on March 20. His colleague Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian usually based in Warsaw, died on April 8 when an American tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel, from which Mr. Protsyuk was filming...

WASHINGTON (AP)--A U.S. military investigation has concluded that U.S. soldiers who fired on a Baghdad hotel April 8, killing two journalists, had strong reason to believe that hostile forces were using the building to direct fire on the Americans, according to a U.S. defense official. The official, who had been briefed on the investigation's findings and discussed them on condition of anonymity, said members of the 3rd Infantry Division fired on what they believed to be an enemy spotter on a balcony of the Palestine Hotel, which was the main hotel used by war correspondents. Their actions were based on...

A US military investigation has concluded that the crew of a US tank acted properly when it fired on a Baghdad hotel filled with foreign journalists April 8, killing two television cameramen, US officials said.The investigation found that the tank fired at the Palestine Hotel because of reports a spotter was coordinating Iraqi fire from there, an official said.A Ukrainian cameraman for Reuters television, 35-year-old Taras Protsyuk, and a Spaniard working for the Spanish television network Telecinco, 37-year-old Jose Couso, were killed by the shell blast.Three other Reuters television journalists were wounded in the incident, which came amid heavy...

We got it wrong on hotel attack, admits Sky Ciar Byrne Wednesday June 25, 2003 Media coverage of the attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad that killed two television cameramen was "overblown" because journalists were at the centre of the story, BBC and Sky correspondents in the Iraqi capital have claimed. The head of Sky News, Nick Pollard, today told the MediaGuardian forum on war coverage that on the day of the attack on the hotel - the main centre for western journalists reporting the war - he decided after a few hours to stop running it as the...

Dead Journalist's Family Sues U.S. Troops .c The Associated Press MADRID, Spain (AP) - The family of a Spanish journalist - killed by a U.S. shell fired at a Baghdad hotel during the war in Iraq - has sued three U.S. soldiers, accusing them of war crimes and murder, a National Court official said Wednesday. The suit, filed Tuesday, is to be considered by investigative magistrate Guillermo Ruiz de Polanco, the court official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. Polanco will decide if there are sufficient grounds for a trial before any move is made to try to bring...

BERLIN (AFP) - US troops which fired on Baghdad's main hotel occupied by journalists, killing two, had called in fighter planes to bomb the building, a German journalist who witnessed the event said on Tuesday. "The tank commander called for support from the air. But he did not know the building was a hotel," said Ulrich Tilgner, on ZDF public television. It was a US journalist, "embedded" with the troops, who alerted them to the fact the Palestine Hotel was used as a base by the international media in Baghdad and the strike was called off, Tilgner said. The...

Report: Tank Captain Unaware of Baghdad Media HotelMon Apr 21,10:28 AM ETPARIS (Reuters) - The commander of a U.S. tank unit that hit a Baghdad hotel, killing two cameramen during the battle for the Iraqi capital, says he was unaware the building was packed with journalists, according to a French magazine. Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Jose Couso, a cameraman for Spanish channel Tele 5, were killed when a tank shell hit the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel. Three other members of the Reuters team were wounded. Capt. Philip Wolford, who led the Abrams tanks defending a bridge near...

  Sky's Chater in Baghdad ME AND SADDAM'S HEAVIES First light came with gunfire throughout the city.A fat, waxing American moon hung over Baghdad. The armoured wagons of the US Marine Corps surrounded our hotel, writes Sky's Baghdad correspondent, David Chater. The pools of burning oil had been extinguished...but fresh flames were being set by the looters.My last night in the Iraqi capital after three weeks of war.Paranoia punctuated the dawn drive westwards to Jordan.In the outskirts of the city, we passed a checkpoint still manned by the Iraqi militia.Then through the Coalition's surrounding chokeholds where all questions were...

From the "Human Shields" website today (16 April 2003):( Human Shield') "Uzma Bashir Threatened by U.S. Marines in Baghdad Uzma Bashir, a Human Shield volunteer in Baghdad, confronted imperial troops as they entered Baghdad last week. She wanted to know, from U.S. Marines, what it felt like to murder Iraqi children. Uzma has subsequently been physically threatened by U.S. Marines and we have received thinly veiled threats via our website from people saying they belong to the U.S. military:" (goes on to list 'threats')

Its on TV Now you can hear the firefight in Baghdad!

The manager of the Palestine hotel put on his best suit and a broad smile and crossed his parking lot to meet the Americans. "Happy to see you," he said to an approaching group of soldiers. Cradling their M16s and casting wary glances around them, the marines had just emerged from their armoured vehicles in front of the hotel in the middle of Baghdad. They looked taken aback by the strange welcoming committee. With his helmet pulled down low over his brow, Colonel B P McCoy of the US Marine Corps seemed surprised to be shaking the hand extended to...

The View from CNN - (Hold mein Hell Hath No Furry Like Journalists Alert!)CNN LIVE ON LOCATIONMany Questions Remain in Deaths of JournalistsAired April 8, 2003 - 14:26 ETWOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The two journalists who were killed today in that tank shell were killed at the Palestine Hotel. That's been a base for international journalists in Baghdad. Both of the dead were cameramen, one with Reuters, the other with Spain's Telecinco (ph). Three journalists were wounded in that same incident. The CENTCOM says American forces responding -- were responding to what they described as -- quote -- "significant fire"...

Would Journalists have “embedded” Themselves in Hitler’s Bunker in 1945? It is very obvious that the regime of Iraq will use journalists as human shields, and use the occupancy or housing of journalists in the same way they use mosques, schools and hospitals, in the same manner the regime uses their own citizens. Would this be a surprise to these journalists? They did not, do not, expect that? Obviously, they must not be covering the war at all if this is a surprise to them. And so, what are they doing there, in a building with the Iraqi Information Minister?...