U.S. troops allegedly killed Iraqi journalist

06/28/2005

BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. troops allegedly killed an Iraqi television director Tuesday when he drove near a U.S. convoy, colleagues and a hospital official said. The U.S. military said it had no reports of the incident.
Ahmed Wael Bakri, a program director for al-Sharqiya television, was the third Iraqi journalist allegedly killed in similar incidents in the past week.

He was trying to pass a traffic accident and wasn’t paying attention to a U.S. convoy when troops allegedly opened fire at his car, according to Riyadh al-Salman, a production director at the station.

Dr. Muhanad Jawad of the Yarmouk Hospital also said Bakri was shot when he failed to pull over as the U.S. convoy passed in the area.

The U.S. military said it had no immediate reports of the alleged afternoon incident, although an “escalation of force resulting in the death of one local national” had occurred in the morning.

The French watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders called for an inquiry. “We ask the competent authorities to take all necessary steps to investigate the circumstances of his death,” the group said.

U.S. military convoys often are targeted by suicide car bombers, and most have signs on the rear vehicles warning drivers and people to keep their distance.

Bakri, who was in his 30s, also worked for al-Iraqiya television. He was on his way to visit his in-laws at the time of the shooting, al-Salman said.

On Sunday, Maha Ibrahim, a news editor with the local Baghdad TV channel, was killed when U.S. troops opened fire after apparently coming under attack in a Baghdad neighborhood, channel director Saad al-Bayati said. Ibrahim and her husband were on their way to the station, owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party.

On Friday, an Iraqi reporter working for an American news organization was shot and killed in Baghdad, allegedly by U.S. troops, after he apparently did not respond to a shouted signal from a military convoy, witnesses said.

The U.S. military had no immediate response to either claim.

Earlier this month, an Iraqi reporter working for the Dubai-based television network Al-Arabiya was seriously wounded in an apparent kidnapping attempt.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 45 journalists and 20 media support workers have been killed while covering the war in Iraq since March 2003. Insurgent actions are responsible for the bulk of deaths.