"Media deaths explanation sought"
Apr. 9th, 2003 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thedarkprojecthttp://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/09/sprj.irq.journalists/index.html
"An international press freedoms group has accused the U.S. military of deliberately firing at journalists, killing three of them, when U.S. tanks rolled through Baghdad.
[...]
The U.S. Central Command said that in both cases, U.S. forces came under "significant enemy fire" from the buildings and responded "consistent with the inherent right of self-defense.
[...]
Journalists from three western television networks told CNN, however, that they were in the Palestine Hotel when the tank fired and saw no outgoing fire from the hotel.
[...]
Reporters Without Borders also said film shot by a French TV station shows the surrounding neighborhood was very quiet at the time and that the "U.S. tank crew took their time, waiting for a couple of minutes and adjusting its gun before opening fire."
[...]
"Even if there was sniper fire coming there, aimed towards massively armored tanks, was that risk commensurate with the risk of civilian casualty by firing a tank shell into the Palestine Hotel or firing some kind of explosive into the Al-Jazeera office?" asked Christiane Amanpour, the chief international correspondent for CNN, from Kuwait City. "That is a very serious question which needs an urgent answer," she said.
"An international press freedoms group has accused the U.S. military of deliberately firing at journalists, killing three of them, when U.S. tanks rolled through Baghdad.
[...]
The U.S. Central Command said that in both cases, U.S. forces came under "significant enemy fire" from the buildings and responded "consistent with the inherent right of self-defense.
[...]
Journalists from three western television networks told CNN, however, that they were in the Palestine Hotel when the tank fired and saw no outgoing fire from the hotel.
[...]
Reporters Without Borders also said film shot by a French TV station shows the surrounding neighborhood was very quiet at the time and that the "U.S. tank crew took their time, waiting for a couple of minutes and adjusting its gun before opening fire."
[...]
"Even if there was sniper fire coming there, aimed towards massively armored tanks, was that risk commensurate with the risk of civilian casualty by firing a tank shell into the Palestine Hotel or firing some kind of explosive into the Al-Jazeera office?" asked Christiane Amanpour, the chief international correspondent for CNN, from Kuwait City. "That is a very serious question which needs an urgent answer," she said.
