- Most of the young Iraqi men and boys mingling around
the burning wreckage of a US armoured car in Baghdad were unfazed by the
clattering of an American helicopter gunship overhead. Moments later they
were under fire.
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- Some had pointed to the Apache helicopter. Others jogged
slowly from the burning Bradley fighting vehicle, which the US military
said had been set ablaze by a bomb. None expected it would shoot at them.
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- Standing next to him, Fuad's colleague and friend Mazin
Tumaizi, a producer for Dubai-based al-Arabiya, was killed as he prepared
to give a stand-up piece to camera.
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- "I looked at the sky and saw a helicopter at very
low altitude", Fouad said. "Just moments later I saw a flash
of light from the Apache. Then a strong explosion", he said.
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- "Mazen's blood was on my camera and face,"
Fuad said. Tumaizi screamed to Fuad for help: "Saif, Saif! I'm going
to die. I'm going to die."
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- At Least 10 people Were Killed In The US Attack
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- A second blast hit some 15 seconds later, lodging shrapnel
in Fuad's leg and waist as he was trying to pull Tumaizi from danger. Fouad's
camera, its lens stained with blood, filmed the chaos.
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- The US military said the Bradley's crew of four were
slightly wounded by the bomb and had been evacuated from the scene.
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- "Air support destroyed the Bradley fighting vehicle
to prevent looting and harm to the Iraqi people," the US military
said in a statement.
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- Reuters footage showed the crowd to be made up of unarmed
boys and men, two of whom were standing on top of the Bradley.
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- Some had been celebrating the destruction of the armoured
car.
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- Others were discussing what had happened and quietly
watching the Bradley burn, sending thick black smoke into the sky. Then
the attack began.
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