TV cameraman killed by US fire in Iraq: doctors

[Barrett808]

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - An Iraqi cameraman was killed by a bullet to the forehead when US troops fired in the direction of journalists during clashes in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, doctors and witnesses told AFP.

"ABC News cameraman Burhan Mohammed al-Luhaybi who received a bullet to the forehead, just passed away," said Muhannad al-Samarrai, a doctor at Fallujah General hospital.

"The bullet is the same that we have seen in previous casualties fired by US troops," said another doctor, Mohammed al-Kabissi.

An AFP correspondent and other reporters at the scene said Luhaybi was standing among a group of journalists covering the clashes when US troops fired in their direction, hitting him in the forehead.

"We told him to stay back, but he insisted on moving forward to take more shots. This is when the US forces fired and he was wounded," an AFP correspondent said.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040326/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_unrest_fallujah&cid=1514&ncid=1480

[DrWeird]

1. So they purposefully shot a cameraman.

Isn't it against the Geneva convention to shoot noncombatants?

[gWbush is Mabus]

6. those fuckers

[minkyboodle]

19. not those affiliated with arab TV networks apparently....

[juajen]

2. The US is following no rules when it comes to journalists in this war

Can't let them get the truth out, can we? I do believe that this has been backfiring, and may be the cause of more truth coming out than ever before. While journalists can be manipulated, they are also capable of fighting back, and many do. Brave souls!!

[Mari333]

3. email from Baghdad today

stepson says the people are getting angrier...really angry...giving them hell where he is..(he knows they hate the soldiers, hes caught in this and wants to come home, calls it a hell hole)
hes behind barbed wire and he said its getting pretty bad.
anyway thats todays email from him.
http://www.bringthemhomenow.com

[truthspeaker]

4. that makes me angry and sad Mari

mostly angry.

[UpInArms]

8. I am so sorry for your stepson Mari333

I wish we could bring him home now.

:hug:

[UpInArms]

5. witnessing and recording the killing

is a very dangerous profession - made more so by the continuing illegality of the "war" on humanity.

http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp?:405a3d38:d5801180eb8e9627?type=worldNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4600047

U.S. troops kill Iraqi Arabiya cameraman - colleagues



By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops shot dead an Iraqi journalist working for Dubai-based satellite television channel Al Arabiya and critically wounded another in central Baghdad on Thursday, the station and colleagues said.

Al Arabiya called the shootings a "horrid crime" and demanded an investigation.

<snip>

"I tried to race away...and then the Americans started firing at random. They hit the first car and then they started shooting at our car."

A U.S. military spokesman said troops had shot dead one Iraqi after his car ran through a checkpoint and hit a Humvee. The spokesman said the Iraqi was the only person in the car, and he had no information about whether any journalists were killed or wounded in the incident.

Arabiya identified the dead cameraman as Ali Abdelaziz and said its correspondent Ali al-Khatib was in critical condition.

...more...

http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp?:405ed9d8:e17db8b554566187?type=worldNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4620112

Shooting of cameraman tragic but justified - U.S. report

LONDON (Reuters) - An American soldier who killed Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana in Iraq was justified in opening fire, a U.S. army report said on Monday.

The report, made public seven months after Dana died, found that the soldier's "decision to fire at Mr Dana, though tragic and regrettable, was justified based on the information available to him at the time."

Reuters said it could not agree that the death of Dana, a prize-winning Palestinian cameraman, was justified and called for the urgent implementation of recommendations in the report to improve the safety of journalists in war zones.

It said Dana would not have died in the shooting outside Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison on August 17 if the recommendations had been in place.

...more...

(edited to fix links)

[Dover]

7. I think Rummy and his military commandos have encouraged

this hateful attitude toward the press making them pretty indistinguishable from the "enemy". And while I have HUGE complaints about the media's coverage of events, this can only make matters worse. I hope ABC has them for lunch...
Reuters too....

[goclark]

9. Loved Embedded In Shock and Awe

I agree. RumBall was nicey nicely during all the shock and awe.

Now that the soldiers are getting shot daily, suffering from suidides and finding our that we are not loved but hated,Rumball doesn't want Media in there, unless for a photo op.

[truthspeaker]

10. plus most of the press getting shot are Arabs

Al Jazeera and other Arab press organizations don't follow Bremer's orders and insist on being objective.

[trotsky]

11. I feel bad for our troops.

It is of course not right to kill non-combatants.

But consider that someone who appears to be a cameraman might just be carrying a bomb in that camera.

Our troops are not to blame for being put in that situation. The Commander-in-Chief is.

[theHandpuppet]

13. Has there ever been a recorded instance...

.. of any Iraqi insurgent or terrorist posing as a camerman? A journalist? Not one? Do you realize how many innocent Iraqis have died, including women and children, with the excuse that they "could have been terrorists"? Well then, if that's a blanket excuse for firing upon anyone from journalists to women herding their goats we might as well kill off all the Iraqis and let God sort 'em out. Better safe than sorry. <saracsm off>

This is the sixth member of the journalism profession to have been killed in Iraq by American troops in the past year. Some were killed sitting in their hotels by tanks and missles.

No, I don't blame our young troops for being in Iraq, but if they start firing in all directions at anything that moves then they are poorly trained and undisciplined and we need to get the hell out of there, because such instances will only lead to further anger among the Iraqi people -- and rightly so.

Bush created this damn mess and cracks jokes while people die every day in Iraq, including young men and women he ordered to be there for a war he was just itching to have. One based on nothing but a conspiracy of lies. How much longer, Mr Bush? How many more will pay with their lives while you eat steak and crack jokes about such lies at your next fundraiser?

[trotsky]

14. Well

Good thing your anger ended up in the right place by the end of your post. Of COURSE I realize that many thousands of innocents have died. And do I know if there has been a recorded instance of a camera with a bomb? No, I don't. But I'm not in the war zone. I also haven't seen my close buddies get blown up by an innocent-looking driver in a car.

And in no way whatsoever am I even vaguely proposing that we "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out." That is insulting.

From the account given, the cameraman was warned to back up. He failed to comply. I'm sorry, I don't approve of what happened any more than you do, but what do you think should have been done instead?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. A point of consideration is in order...

...the journalist was warned to back up by his fellow journalists, not by any of the U. S. troops. The journalist did not receive an order from anyone in the U. S. military, therefore, he didn't "fail to comply" with anyone in a position to give that kind of order. Here's the exact quote:

"'We told him to stay back, but he insisted on moving forward to take more shots. This is when the US forces fired and he was wounded,' an AFP correspondent said."

He was an Iraqi who was carrying a camera, an object that is very difficult to confuse with a weapon of any sort.

IMHO, too many journalists have been killed in Iraq as a result of so-called "friendly fire".

[trotsky]

16. Thank you.

Worth noting, to be sure.

And I also agree with your opinion that far too many journalists have died.

But I'm not going to say that this particular incident was inexcusable. I don't want ANYONE dying in Iraq, mainly because of the crooked lying bastard occupying the White House who put our troops in harm's way. But considering the terror-type attacks our troops have to endure, is it really that much of a stretch to think some suicide bomber could load up a video camera with explosives? You don't have a lot of time to evaluate these things in a war zone, you know. Again, I can't fault our troops, only the bastards who put them there.

[theHandpuppet]

18. For that matter...

Anything at all *could be* loaded with explosives, from a camera to a baby carriage. But you can't just start firing away on the off chance that a cameraman or an Iraqi mother may be concealing a bomb, especially if there have been no such instances in the past and the supposed "target" isn't posing a threat. As I said earlier, if our young troops are that trigger nervous (and I'm not downplaying their legitimate fear of bombers) that anyone on the street becomes a target, then IMO military discipline has broken down and they need to be brought home.

It's not the fault of our young men and women that they find themselves in Iraq, but its also not the fault of innocent people we have killed who also leave behind grieving wives, husbands and children. There are no winners in this war, but we are the ones who brought this war to the streets of Iraq, all based on lies. It's time to bring the troops home.

[Malva Zebrina]

17. it certainly does reek of kill anything that moves type of response

even it it is journalists or women or children or old men.

What has become of this country that we have soldiers killing people like this out of sheer fear and ignorance?

What has become of this country that it sends young soldiers out to do things like this, when George Bush lied about it in the first place?

They are killing innocent people. Our troops are killing innocent people.

That is NOT acceptable.

I don't care what anyone says about "supporting the troops"

This is NOT acceptable.

I cannot accept a animalistic killing machine like this.

I cannot support troops who do this.

It has gone beyond my willingness to excuse them because they are young and needed to go into the military in order for some reason I cannot understand, such as they are poor and bright eyed and bushy tailed and needed the money or wanted to go to college on our money.

Sorry, I cannot support any troops that do this. And I will not support any troops that do this.

[louis-t]

12. one more heart and mind..

we're not winning over.