[Media-watch] US troops kill to Iraqi television employees - Bradenton Herald - 20/04/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/8471349.htm
Posted on Tue, Apr. 20, 2004

U.S. troops kill two Iraqi television employees

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD - U.S. troops shot to death two employees of U.S.-funded television
station Al-Iraqiya on Monday and wounded a third in the central city of
Samara, the station said.

Correspondent Asaad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh were killed. Cameraman
Bassem Kamel was wounded "after American forces opened fire on them while
they were performing their duty," the station announced.

The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

Thamir Ibrahim, an Al-Iraqiya editor, told The Associated Press he had no
details on how the shooting occurred. But "it was on the road leading to the
city of Samara. Before they reached it, they were fired upon."

They were taken to a Samara hospital, he said. "We wanted to go (to them)
now, but the road is closed, so we will go tomorrow."

On March 18, U.S. troops shot dead correspondent Ali al-Khatib and cameraman
Ali Abdel-Aziz of the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news station.

Al-Khatib and Abdel-Aziz were shot near a U.S. military checkpoint while
covering the aftermath of a rocket attack on the Burj al-Hayat hotel in
Baghdad.

With the deaths of the two men, at least 24 Iraqi and foreign journalists
and media workers have been killed during the Iraq war and its aftermath,
according to the Committee to Protect Journalists Web site.

Al-Iraqiya began broadcasting on May 13, set up under a Defense Department
contract. The Iraq Media Network, which runs Al-Iraqiya and two Baghdad
radio station, was conceived during the State Department's war preparations.

The TV station gets exclusive interviews with coalition leaders and streams
live broadcasts of speeches by L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in
Iraq. But most Iraqis continue to get their news from Arab satellite
stations based abroad, like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.

Among the journalists who have been killed during the Iraq conflict is
Reuters cameraman, Mazen Dana, shot by U.S. troops in August. The military
ruled that the soldiers acted in accordance with rules of engagement because
they believed his camera was a rocket launcher, a conclusion Reuters
disputed.

Another Reuters cameraman, Taras Protsyuk, and Spanish Telecinco cameraman
Jose Couso were killed on April 8, 2003, when a U.S. tank fired at the
Palestine Hotel where they were staying.

The men worked at station Al-Iraqiya, which is funded by the Pentagon.