- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S.
tank fired on a Baghdad hotel packed with foreign journalists, killing
two cameramen, and prompting an outcry from media watchdog groups demanding
an investigation.
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- Cameramen from Reuters and Spanish television died and
three other Reuters staff were wounded in the shelling on Tuesday, soon
after a journalist from al-Jazeera was killed in what the Arab television
channel called a U.S. air strike on its office.
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- Reporters saw the American tank point its turret gun
at the Palestine Hotel, home to most international media in the Iraqi capital.
Seconds later a single shell slammed into the Reuters office on the 15th
floor with a deafening crash.
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- The U.S. military said it had been fired upon first from
the hotel and regretted any casualties, but said Baghdad was a war zone
and safeguards could not be given.
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- Journalists in the hotel said they did not hear any firing
at the tank and the Committee to Protect Journalists, a watchdog group
that defends press freedoms, demanded an investigation in a letter to Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
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- "We believe these attacks violate the Geneva Conventions,"
the letter said. It said that even if U.S. forces had been fired on from
the Palestine Hotel "the evidence suggests that the response of U.S.
forces was disproportionate and therefore violated international humanitarian
law."
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- Severine Cazes, head of the Middle East desk at Paris-based
media watchdog Reporters without Borders, said: "It's hard to believe
this was just a mistake. We want proof this was not a deliberate attack
on journalists."
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- The head of the Arab Journalists Union (AJU), Ibrahim
Nafei, also "condemned the Anglo-American attack on journalists while
in Baghdad to cover the aggression."
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- "UNNECESSARY" DEATH
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- Reuters Warsaw-based Ukrainian cameraman Taras Protsyuk,
35, died in hospital. The international news organization's editor-in-chief
Geert Linnebank said the loss was "so unnecessary" and raised
questions about U.S. troops' judgment.
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- "Clearly the war, and all its confusion, have come
to the heart of Baghdad, but the incident nonetheless raises questions
about the judgment of the advancing U.S. troops who have known all along
that this hotel is the main base for almost all foreign journalists in
Baghdad," Linnebank said.
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- He said Reuters was devastated by the death of Protsyuk,
who leaves a widow Lidia and eight-year-old son Denis.
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- Spain's Tele 5 (Telecinco) television said Jose Couso,
37, also died in hospital after being hit in the jaw and leg. He leaves
a wife and two children.
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- Lebanese-born Samia Nakhoul, Reuters Gulf bureau chief
based in Dubai, and Iraqi photographer Faleh Kheiber were wounded in the
face and head. Television satellite dish coordinator Paul Pasquale, a Briton,
suffered leg wounds.
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- Jazeera said its reporter-producer Tarek Ayoub died in
an earlier U.S. strike that hit its offices. A day before, an Iraqi strike
killed a German and Spanish reporter near Baghdad.
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- Hundreds of journalists are in Iraq to cover the U.S.-led
war to topple President Saddam Hussein, and are working from central Baghdad,
with U.S. and British forces, or on their own.
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- The deaths raised to 10 the number of people killed while
working for the media since war began on March 20. The 10 include a translator
for the BBC. Two more journalists died of other causes in Iraq.
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- Abu Dhabi television, which like Jazeera has its own
office in Baghdad, called on U.S. forces to let its 25 journalists leave
the building it said was encircled by tanks as night fell.
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- Central Command, the U.S. war headquarters in the Gulf
state of Qatar, said forces received "significant enemy fire"
from the hotel and returned fire in self-defense.
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- "War is a dangerous, dangerous business, and you're
not safe when you're in a war zone," the Defense Department's chief
spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters at the Pentagon.
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- Reporters at the scene disputed the U.S. military's account.
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- "I never heard a single shot coming from any of
the area around here, certainly not from the hotel," said British
Sky television's correspondent David Chater.
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- Jazeera said it was trying to pull all its reporters
out of Iraq. Some other news organizations were considering doing the same.
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