IRAQ: ITALIAN TROOPS DESTROY THE OFFICE OF MUQTADA AL - SADR IN NASSIRIYA. / FLAGS FLY AT HALF MAST AT GERMAN EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD AFTER TWO GERMANS ARE KILLED.

Record ID: 230553

  • Title: IRAQ: ITALIAN TROOPS DESTROY THE OFFICE OF MUQTADA AL - SADR IN NASSIRIYA. / FLAGS FLY AT HALF MAST AT GERMAN EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD AFTER TWO GERMANS ARE KILLED.
  • Date: 11th April 2004
  • Summary: (W4) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (APRIL 11, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WS: EXTERIOR OF GERMAN EMBASSY. 0.08 2. VARIOUS: OF FLAGS FLOATING AT HALF MAST. (3 SHOTS) 0.28 3. WS: MAIN GATE OF GERMAN EMBASSY. 0.33 (W4) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (APRIL 11, 2004) (REUTERS) 4. WS: MAIN GATE OF MOSQUE. 0.38 5. CU: OF MOSQUE GATE. 0.44 6. MV: PEOPLE GATHERING IN FRONT. 0.51 7. VARIOUS: OF INTERIOR SHOTS - DAMAGES, MEDICAL SUPPLIES AND FOOD BAGS SCATTERED ON GROUND. (4 SHOTS) 1.13 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RESIDENT FALAH FADIL MAHMUD SAYING: "They (U.S. soldiers) came in from this door, 20 or more of them. They used knives to rip open the bags full of beans and flour, and kicked over oil cans. They took lots of water and boxes of milk for the children. Then they went out by another door." 1.41 9. VARIOUS: SMASHED DOOR. (3 SHOTS) 1.57 10. MV: MORE DAMAGE. (2 SHOTS) 2.06 (W4) NASSIRIYA, IRAQ (APRIL 11, 2004) (REUTERS) 11. VARIOUS: EXTERIOR OF SADR OFFICE IN NASSIRIYA, U.S. MILITARY VEHICLES PASS ALONG ROAD. 2.18 12. LAS: SIGN READING OFFICE OF MARTYR SAYYED MUHAMMED Al-SADR IN NASSIRIYA. 2.23 13. WS: COLLAPSED WALL OF OFFICE/ PICTURES OF SHI'ITE CLERIC MUQTADA AL-SADR AND HIS FATHER MUHAMMED SADEQ AL-SADR 2.29 14. VARIOUS: DAMAGE INSIDE AND OUT OF OFFICE'S ROOMS. (6 SHOTS) 3.06 15. TV/WS: PEOPLE STANDING OUTSIDE DEMOLISHED HOUSE AMID RUBBLE. 3.11 16. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABU RA'ID, SAYING: "We have told the Italian troops that it is safe to cross to this side of the city. So why did all this happen? Why on this night? And why did they renegade on their promises?" 3.29 17. WS: PEOPLE OUTSIDE DAMAGED OFFICE. 3.34 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 26th April 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD/NASSIRIYA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA74Y8QX06USOXPF1R1KQDQDD7
  • Story Text: German flags fly at half mast in Baghdad.



    Flags at the German embassy in the Iraqi capita l
    Baghdad flew at half mast on Sunday (April 11), after the
    Daily Telegraph showed pictures of the body of a dead
    German on it's front page.

    A correspondent for Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper
    said guerrillas had shown him the bodies of the two
    Germans, said to have been killed in a highway shoot out
    west of Baghdad.

    Several foreigners have been killed, kidnapped or gone
    missing over the past week, putting pressure on U.S.

    allies, including Japan, Britain, Spain and Italy. Three
    Japanese have been abducted, and others missing include two
    U.S. soldiers, several contractors and the two German
    embassy security guards.

    According to witnesses U.S. troops used tanks to smash
    their way into the compound of a Sunni mosque and Koranic
    school in a night raid on the Adhamiya district, where
    teenage gunmen fought running street battles with the
    Americans on Saturday.

    "They (U.S. soldiers) came in from this door, 20 or
    more of them," resident Falah Fadil Mahmud told Reuters.

    "They used knives to rip open the bags full of beans
    and flour, and kicked over oil cans. They took lots of
    water and boxes of milk for the children."
    The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the raid.

    In Nassiriya, Italian troops stormed and destroyed the
    office of Muqtada al-Sadr.

    One of the followers of radical Shi'ite cleric al-Sadr
    who was in the area said that five Italian military
    vehicles came overnight and surrounded the office then
    armed troops entered the office and after a loud explosion
    ripped through the office, reducing it to rubble.

    Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a
    surprise visit over Easter to Italian troops saying the
    situation is "very difficult" but vowed to keep troops in
    Iraq.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register