IRAQ: REUTERS JOURNALIST WALEED KHALED KILLED IN BAGHDAD AND HIS COLLEAGUE HAIDER KADHEM WOUNDED AND DETAINED BY U.S TROOPS
Record ID:
931130
IRAQ: REUTERS JOURNALIST WALEED KHALED KILLED IN BAGHDAD AND HIS COLLEAGUE HAIDER KADHEM WOUNDED AND DETAINED BY U.S TROOPS
- Title: IRAQ: REUTERS JOURNALIST WALEED KHALED KILLED IN BAGHDAD AND HIS COLLEAGUE HAIDER KADHEM WOUNDED AND DETAINED BY U.S TROOPS
- Date: 28th August 2005
- Summary: (BN11) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 28, 2005) (POOL) 1. VARIOUS OF CARS DRIVING ACROSS GHAZALIYA BRIDGE 0.09 2. WIDE OF SEEN FROM A DISTANCE WHITE REUTERS CAR SURROUNDED BY U.S. SOLDIERS 0.16 3. WIDE OF CARS ON BRIDGE 0.22 4. VARIOUS OF BODY OF WALEED KHALED, A REUTERS TELEVISION SOUNDMAN ON STRETCHER AT YARMUK HOSPITAL WITH BROTHER WISAM CRYING AND BEING COMFORTED BY WALEED'S COLLEAGUES 1.00 5. SLV STRETCHER BEING WHEELED 1.12 6. VARIOUS OF BROTHER CRYING, BEING COMFORTED BY WALEED'S COLLEAGUES 1.42 7. VARIOUS OF REUTERS STAFF BY HOSPITAL WITH WALEED'S BROTHER 1.57 8. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ ZALMAY KHALILZAD, ASKED AT NEWS CONFERENCE BY REUTERS JOURNALIST TO COMMENT ON THE KILLING OF WALEED KHALED, SAYING: "Our soldiers, men and women, are here at great risk to themselves to provide new opportunity for Iraq, the Iraqis to build a new country for themselves based on democratic principles. And with respect to everyone's rights and with absence the kind of dictatorship that was the case here during the previous era, they make huge sacrifices, these men and women, and we are grateful to each and everyone of them for their sacrifices. Now, military operations unfortunately are not a perfect science. Every effort is obviously made to go after those who threaten them or threaten Iraq's future. But sometime mistakes are made. And when they are made we investigate and than report on our findings. This is an unfortunate adjunct that goes along with the military operation that sometime mistakes are made." 4.12 9. WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE 4.16 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 11th September 2005 13:00
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- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVADMRGMNGT9AZZ88VI5WIF0O6LK
- Story Text:Reuters journalist killed in Iraq.
A Reuters Television soundman was shot dead in
Baghdad on Sunday (August 28, 2005) and a cameraman with him was
wounded and then detained by U.S. soldiers.
Iraqi police said they had been shot by U.S. forces. A
U.S. military spokesman said the incident was being
investigated.
Waleed Khaled, 35, was hit by a shot to the face and at
least four to the chest as he drove to check a report from
police sources of an incident involving police and gunmen
in the Hay al-Adil district, in the west of the city.
"A team from Reuters news agency was on assignment to
cover the killing of two policemen in Hay al-Adil; U.S.
forces opened fire on the team from Reuters and killed
Waleed Khaled, who was shot in the head, and wounded Haider
Kadhem," an Interior Ministry official quoted the police
incident report as saying.
"I heard shooting, looked up and saw an American sniper
on the roof of the shopping centre," cameraman Kadhem, who
was wounded in the back, told colleagues who arrived at the
scene.
The only known eyewitness, he was later detained by
U.S. troops and was still in custody six hours later
despite Reuters' requests that he be freed to receive
medical attention. His precise whereabouts were not clear.
Two Iraqi colleagues who arrived on the scene minutes
after the shooting were also briefly detained, then
released.
"They treated us like dogs. They made us, ... including
Khaled who was wounded and asking for water, sit in the sun
on the road," Reuters Television soundman Mohammed Idriss.
Asked to comment on the incident, U.S. spokesman
Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan said it was being
investigated.
A U.S. statement said: "Task Force Baghdad units
responded to a terrorist attack on an Iraqi Police convoy
around 11:20 a.m. (0720 GMT) Aug. 28 in central Baghdad,
which killed and wounded several Iraqi Police.
"One civilian was killed and another was wounded by
small- arms fire during the attack. After discovering an
abandoned car with explosives material, weapons and a cell
phone, units began searching the area for the terror
suspects who were believed to have fled on foot."
U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, asked about
the incident at a news conference in Baghdad, said there
will be an investigation.
"Our soldiers, men and women, are here at great risk to
themselves to provide new opportunity for Iraq, the Iraqis
to build a new country for themselves based on democratic
principles. Military operations unfortunately are not a
perfect science. Every effort is obviously made to go after
those who threaten them or threaten Iraq's future. But
sometime mistakes are made. And when they are made we
investigate and than report on our findings. This is an
unfortunate adjunct that goes along with the military
operation that sometime mistakes are made."
Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said:
"This tragic incident must immediately be investigated
thoroughly and impartially.
"A brave journalist has lost his life and another has
been wounded and detained when their only actions were as
professionals reporting the facts and images of the war. We
are deeply saddened at this loss."
Iraqis complain of frequent killings of civilians by
U.S. forces, most of which go unreported and
uninvestigated. American commanders say their troops are
trained to be vigilant against suicide bombers and to avoid
firing on civilians.
Reuters correspondent Michael Georgy, who arrived at
the scene about an hour after the shooting, said the
soundman's body was still in the driver's seat, the face
covered by a cloth.
Entry and exit wounds could be seen on the face
indicating shots from the victim's right. There were
several bullet holes in the windscreen and at least four
wounds in the chest.
His U.S. military and Reuters press cards, clipped to
his shirt, were caked in blood. In one, there were two
bullet holes.
To the right of the scene, a U.S. soldier, apparently a
sniper, was posted on the roof of a shopping centre.
A British security adviser working for Reuters said it
seemed likely that high-velocity rounds had been fired at
the car from roughly the direction of that building.
The car, an ordinary, white four-door passenger
vehicle, was heading down an offramp, about 200 metres from
a main road.
U.S. armoured vehicles blocked off the scene. After a
brief inspection of the car, they allowed Reuters staff and
the dead man's family to have it towed away. One soldier
said there were no suspicious items in the car. Colleagues
and relatives were handed a military body bag to remove the
corpse.
A U.S. officer said: "They drove into fighting."
As Waleed's tearful relatives inspected the body at the
scene, a U.S. soldier said: "Don't bother. It's not worth
it."
A few other soldiers joked among themselves just a few
feet (metres) from the body.
Waleed was a jovial character loved by colleagues with
whom he had worked for two years. He leaves a 7-year-old
daughter and his wife, who is four months pregnant.
Two Reuters cameramen have been killed by U.S. troops
in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003. A third was shot
dead by a sniper in Ramadi last November in circumstances
for which Reuters is still seeking an explanation from U.S.
forces.
Reuters' cameraman in the city of Ramadi, Ali
al-Mashhadani, was arrested by U.S. forces three weeks ago
and is being held without charge in Abu Ghraib prison. U.S.
military officials say he will face a judicial hearing as
soon as Monday but have still given no access to the
journalist or said what he is accused of. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS - SOURCE TO BE VERIFIED
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