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Iraq

Unveiled candidates posters stop traffic in Iraq

2010-03-05

[Al Arabiya Latest] Feyruz Hatam's face is itself an indication of the change in Iraqi society's view of women that has become apparent in the run-up to the country's election on Sunday: it is not covered. "The mentality of Iraqi voters has changed. I'm happy because my photo conveys the message that times have changed," says Hatam, whose brown trouser suit makes her stand out from fellow Iraqi National Alliance candidates. Her female colleagues at a meeting of the conservative Shiite grouping at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel are mostly wearing abayas, head-to-toe flowing black dresses, and the men are turbaned, indicating they are clerics. Hatam and women like her around the country, whose faces are uncovered in all forms of media from election posters to televised debates, have been one of the surprises of the campaign ahead of Iraq's second parliamentary election since Saddam Hussein was ousted by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. "I think I am an asset to my colleagues, because I think young men and women will vote for us because of my presence," says the 44-year-old, who runs an Iraqi television channel and leads the small Fayli Kurd Party. Faylis are Shiite Kurds who live in the country's east. Thousands of them were expelled from their homes by Saddam Hussein in 1979. "By showing my uncovered head, I show voters that our list is not only made up of Islamists." Rights for women returning In the chaos that followed the 2003 invasion, religious militias severely clamped down on women's rights and forced them to cover their heads or face the threat of violence. Hatam herself returned to Iraq in 2004, after having left for Iran aged 13, and is now among 1,801 female candidates standing for parliament. Iraq's constitution stipulates that a quarter of a party's candidates, and eventual MPs, must be women. As a result, no fewer than 82 women will be elected to parliament in the March 7 poll. Most female candidates still wear veils or headscarves, but a brave minority like Hatam and Safiya al-Souhail, a candidate with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law Alliance, are making their point with uncovered heads. Respect for religious traditions "In 2005, the names and certainly the photos of the candidates did not appear on election posters because the security situation was dire," says Souhail. "We could have been targets for al-Qaeda, who had vowed to stop the elections." For Souhail, who was elected to parliament in 2005 as part of ex-prime minister Iyad Allawi's bloc, "just because a woman is not veiled, it does not mean she is disrespecting religious tradition." "Our constitution is clear, it stipulates that our country respects Islam but is not an Islamic state." Souhail says she wants to "erase the years when the militias and outlaws forced women to cover their heads and forbade men from wearing jeans."

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Europe

Spain dismisses case of cameraman killed in Iraq

2009-07-16

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish court said on Tuesday it had dismissed a case against three U.S. soldiers charged with the death in Iraq of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso. During the U.S. invasion, Sergeant Thomas Gibson, Captain Philip Wolford and Lieutenant Colonel Phil de Camp fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on April 8, 2003, killing Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, a Ukranian. The court said the investigating magistrate had presented one-sided evidence, such as witness accounts from Spanish journalists, and left out the soldiers' claims they fired because they thought they saw a spotter who was guiding in hostile fire. The previous criminal case against the soldiers for Couso's death was dismissed in 2008 after the court ruled the cameraman was killed as a result of an act of war. In December, the Supreme Court reopened the case following an appeal by the Spanish cameraman's family. The prosecution in both cases was lead by investigating magistrate Santiago Pedraz. A U.S. military investigation found the tank crew acted within their rules of engagement and the United States has said it will not extradite the three. The Spanish prosecution only deals with the death of Couso, not that of Protsyuk. Attention all reporters, NGO employees and all others not in the uniform of the militaries involved in a particular battle: war is a dangerous business and sometimes those nearby get hurt or killed. If you do not like this, please go very far away. If you choose to stay, you are legally bound to accept whatever may happen to you, your equipment, and the building and furnishings within which you think to hide. That is all. And remember, at a certain distance and angle a television camera looks like an anti-tank weapon. If you point it at American tanks you will die. That is really all.

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Iraq

US attack on Baghdad media hotel no accident: rights group

2008-05-19

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A media rights group has called for a full probe into the 2003 shelling of a Baghdad hotel by US troops which killed two foreign journalists, claiming that new evidence showed the incident was not an accident The International Federation of Journalists said the United States should "tell the whole truth" about the incident at the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, just a day before Baghdad fell to US invading forces. The IFJ said a former US army sergeant had reported seeing secret US documents that listed the hotel as a possible target, in a statement which it said "exposed as a cover-up" contained in the US allegation that the shelling was an accident. "Slowly, the awful truth about the events of that day are emerging," IFJ general secretary Aidan White said in a statement. "This latest information adds to our concern that the failure to properly investigate and report on this attack is covering up the reality that the US was recklessly putting media lives at risk." Spanish cameraman Jose Couso, who worked for the private television station Telecinco, and Ukraine-born Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, were killed at the hotel, which was home to about 150 journalists and media staff at the time. A Spanish court last week threw out murder charges against three US soldiers over the Couso killing, saying there was insufficient evidence indicating an "intentional desire" by the US soldiers to target civilians in the hotel. There was no immediate confirmation from the US military in Baghdad to the IFJ statement. Iraq remains the most dangerous country from which to report. According to Journalism Freedom Observatory, a group monitoring and defending the rights of Iraq journalists, 232 media employees -- including 22 foreigners -- have been killed since the 2003 US led-invasion. Among them, 179 of them were killed while on the job, while the remainder were killed for sectarian reasons or in random acts of violence. At least 14 journalists are also being held hostage by various groups, according to the media watchdog.

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Iraq

Iraq, with U.S. air support, said to attack Sadr City

2008-04-12

Iraqi tanks, with U.S. air support, are "attacking Sadr City," the office of Muqtada al-Sadr said Friday, just hours after the Shiite cleric called for calm in the wake of the assassination of one of his top aides in the southern city of Najaf. Iraq has tanks now? Eyewitnesses and media in the heavily Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, home to the cleric's power base in the capital, reported heavy fighting between U.S.-backed Iraqi troops and al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. The witnesses said U.S. aircraft had been bombarding the area for hours, and media reported rockets slamming into houses and many casualties. Witnesses and al-Sadr's office said mosques were making loudspeaker announcements about Mehdi Army attacks on U.S. military armored vehicles. U.S. Army Maj. Mark Cheadle said the fighting began when a U.S. Army patrol, supporting Iraqi soldiers who were working to establish a checkpoint in the northwest of Sadr City, was hit by 10 roadside bombs followed immediately by small-arms, machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire from nearby buildings. The soldiers fired back at the snipers, killing at least four, Cheadle said. Two subsequent rounds from an M1A2 Abrams tank killed "an undetermined number of criminals and end(ed) the small arms attack," Cheadle said. Cheadle also said that the U.S. Air Force, operating an unmanned aerial vehicle, fired a Hellfire missile at three men setting roadside bombs, killing all three. Tank shells and Hellfires do tend to snuff out an .. argument .. rather quickly. Earlier, al-Sadr issued remarks about the killing of Sayyed Riyadh al-Nuri, who was shot outside his house in Najaf's Adala neighborhood after returning from Friday prayers. "The hands of the occupiers and their collaborators have treacherously reached our beloved martyr Sayyed Riyadh al-Nuri," al-Sadr wrote in a statement on the Web. Al-Nuri is one of 17 people killed over 24 hours in airstrikes, fighting and attacks in areas wracked in recent weeks by fighting among Shiites. The assassination prompted an immediate vehicle ban in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, anger among mourners and an intensification of fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki issued a statement deploring the killing and ordering an investigation. Al-Sadr issued remarks about the killing in a statement on a Web site. Spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi emphasized that the cleric is not accusing anyone in particular of the killing but believes that the killers "are the ones who are following the occupiers' steps and don't want stability for the country." But al-Obeidi called the killing an "act of provocation" after the "siege of Sadr City." The al-Nuri assassination prompted officials to expand the daily curfew in Hilla. Police said a ban on all outside movement that usually begins at 11 p.m. and ends at 8 a.m. will instead start at 8:30 p.m. Violence continued Friday in several places in Iraq. Suicide bombings killed at least four people -- three of them police -- and wounded 15, officials said. The first bombing was in Ramadi, the provincial capital of the predominantly Sunni Anbar province west of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said. At least three national police officers were killed and five wounded, the official said. The second attack took place at a checkpoint about 20 km (12 miles) north of Baiji, according to police, who said the bomber and one other person were killed and 10 were wounded. The casualties were members of a local Awakening Council who were manning the checkpoint, police said. The suicide bomber was driving a pickup carrying sheep. Awakening Councils, or Sons of Iraq, are made up of Sunnis who have turned on al Qaeda in Iraq. Also, at least three people were killed and five wounded in a mortar attack on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, an Interior Ministry official said. The Palestine Hotel -- across the Tigris River from the International Zone, the heavily guarded seat of U.S. power in Baghdad -- is in the path of many of the rockets and mortars aimed at the zone. The U.S. military has blamed Iranian-backed Shiite militants for recent mortar and rocket attacks in Baghdad and International Zone, also known as the Green Zone. Unmanned aerial vehicles targeted and killed six suspected insurgents in Basra on Friday and six "heavily armed criminals" in northeastern Baghdad on Thursday night, the U.S. military said. Watch the Baghdad drone attack » The U.S. and Iraqi militaries have consistently said they have not been targeting specific groups in their recent battles in Shiite areas. Iraqi and U.S. government officials say they differentiate between Mehdi Army members obeying al-Sadr's seven-month cease-fire pledge and "gangs," "criminals" or "outlaws" who aren't obeying al-Sadr's orders. On Thursday, a high-level Sadrist delegation held talks with Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni who is one of Iraq's two vice presidents, his office said in a statement. The delegation, headed by senior al-Sadr aide Sayyed Hazim al-Araji, told al-Hashimi that the Sadrists don't plan to be "an extension of any other country," a reference to Iran. The delegation said it doesn't object to the disarming of militias as long as it includes all militias. Al-Hashimi told the delegation the Sadrists need to "act in a better way and allow the government and its forces to confiscate illegal weapons and detain suspects without any obstacles." He emphasized that the Sadrists "should be limited to peaceful political activity." At the same time, al-Hashimi said, security forces should conduct themselves professionally and respect human rights.

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Iraq

Iraqis crack open a furtive drink as Mahdi Army retreats from streets

2007-12-06

With security slowly improving in the [Baghdad] city centre Iraqis are returning to a long-forgotten pastime — drinking. In the days when the Mahdi Army, the deadly guardians of Muslim morality, roamed central Baghdad at will, many alcohol vendors had their shops blown up and their colleagues kidnapped and murdered. In September the Mahdi Army — a sprawling mob incorporating Islamist zealots and hardened criminals — was ordered to observe a ceasefire by its commander, the cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, who was losing control. Since then the alcohol trade has started booming again. “The Mahdi Army tried to make people live in an Islamic way,” Mr Abdul said. “People are still afraid of them. Customers buy alcohol and hide it under their car seats, in the boot or they'll bring in a jerry can and fill it up.” Bottlers in the north of the country, where the drink is imported from Turkey, have started providing small cans of gin, whisky and arak, with fake English names like “Guardsmen Gin,” which people can conceal in their pockets. Like bootleggers in Prohibition America, the alcohol traders bring their booty in heavily armed convoys from the north to the capital. Unlike 1920s Chicago, however, this a completely legal trade being driven underground by illegal militias. Paulus Ishaq, a Christian liquor salesman, sells quite openly over the counter from his shop on Sadoun Street, close to the Palestine Hotel. “The Government controls the streets here. My other shop across the street was burnt down by the Mahdi Army four months ago, and I opened this new one a month ago,” he said. “The Mahdi Army are still around, but not like before. There are many shops opening now around here. Business is good now. Iraqis like to drink.” Business is even better in the Shia south, Mr Abdul said. A small can of gin that goes for 50p in Baghdad sells for £10 in Basra, where Iranian-backed Shia militias rule the streets.

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Europe

Spanish court upholds ruling against three US soldiers

2007-05-25

A Spanish court on Thursday upheld an indictment against three U.S. soldiers in the death of a Spanish journalist in Iraq, rejecting an appeal filed by national prosecutors. Spain's National Court had filed the indictment in April, charging the three American soldiers with homicide and a crime against the international community - defined under Spanish law as an indiscriminate or excessive attack against civilians during war time. The national prosecutors' office challenged the indictment last week, arguing that the firing of a tank shell that killed TV cameraman Jose Couso in April 2003 had not been a crime, but rather an accident of war. Judge Santiago Pedraz - the same judge who issued the April 27 indictment - threw out the appeal on Thursday. In Spain it is investigative magistrates, rather than prosecutors, who file criminal charges. In Thursday's ruling, Pedraz said the three Americans had used indiscriminate and excessive force when they opened fire from their tank at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, where many journalists including Couso were staying. Pedraz said there was no evidence of a sniper or a spotter at the hotel, and that even if there had been a spotter, the firing of a 120-millimeter caliber tank shell would have been a devastating and disproportionate response. "The collateral damage that would be produced was predictable, that is the death and injury of those staying at the hotel," Pedraz said. Pedraz has issued several arrests warrants against the three soldiers, but the United States has said it would not hand them over. The soldiers still run the risk of arrest under a Spanish-issued international warrant should they travel to any country that has an extradition accord with Spain.

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Europe

US Soldiers' Spanish Indictment Appealed

2007-05-20

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Prosecutors on Friday appealed a judge's decision to charge three U.S. soldiers with homicide in the death of a Spanish journalist in Iraq, a court official said. Prosecutors at the National Court said the troops from the U.S. 3rd Infantry, based in Fort Stewart, Ga., committed no crime when their tank fired a shell at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel in 2003, killing Jose Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish television network Telecinco, and Taras Portsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman for Reuters. The prosecutors characterized the attack as an accident of war, said a court official who spoke on customary condition of anonymity. But the Left won't give up that easily. Under Spanish law, investigative magistrates file charges and prosecutors, who must argue the case at trial, can contest those charges if they do not feel they can be succesfully tried. A crime committed against a Spaniard abroad can be prosecuted here if it is not investigated in the country where it was allegedly committed. Investigating magistrate Santiago Pedraz charged Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip DeCamp with homicide and "a crime against the international community" - defined under Spanish law as an indiscriminate or excessive attack against civilians during war - for firing at the Palestine Hotel, where many journalists were staying. Following the incident, then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said American troops had responded to hostile fire from the hotel. He said a U.S. review of the incident found the use of force was justified. Pedraz has issued several arrest warrants against the three soldiers, but the United States has made clear it will not hand them over. The soldiers still run the risk of arrest under a Spanish-issued international warrant should they travel to any country that has an extradition accord with Spain. The next step is for Pedraz himself to decide whether he accepts or rejects the prosecutors' appeal.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas condemns abduction of AP Spanish photographer in Gaza

2006-10-24

Allies are supposed to be off-limits. Palestinian governing Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemned on Tuesday the abduction of a Spanish photographer that works for the Associated Press (AP) near a Gaza hotel by unknown masked militants. In a written statement sent to reporters, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoom urged the kidnappers to free the foreign photographer immediately and without conditions. Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said that unknown masked militants abducted AP photographer Emillio Yomartani near Palestine Hotel on the beachside of Gaza City and fled the scene. The sources said that the masked militants forced Yomartani to get into their car and ran away from the area. No one has claimed responsibility and no contacts had been yet conducted with the unknown abductors. "Actions of abductions are not our culture and are not in our doctrine. The Spanich photographer should be immediately freed,"said Barhoom, adding "Hamas condemns the abduction of guests that carry eminent massages." Meanwhile, Hamas-led government spokesman Ghazi Hamad also denounced that "this crime is a violation of law and hurts the image of the Palestinian people." "The government totally rejects such actions that feed chaos and anarchy," he stated. The abduction of the Spanish photographer was carried out two months after the abduction of two Fox News journalists who were released after a two-week kidnapping in Gaza. Two weeks ago, an American student was also abducted by unknown militants in the West Bank city of Nablus. The abductors calledfor freeing women and children from Israeli prisons. The student was finally freed.

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Europe

Spain drops journo death charges against US soldiers

2006-03-10

Spain's National Court has dropped charges against three U.S. military men in connection with the 2003 killing of a Spanish television cameraman in Baghdad. "There was no crime, rather an act of war against a mistakenly identified enemy," said the court in the ruling made public on Friday. The same court last October had upheld warrants for the arrest on murder charges of two U.S. Army officers and a sergeant in the killing of Jose Couso in April, 2003 during the chaotic days when U.S. forces were taking control of the Iraqi capital. Couso, who worked for Spain's Tele 5 network, was killed while filming from a balcony of the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital. A colleague from Reuters, Ukrainian photographer Taras Protsyuk, also died from the explosion of the round fired by a U.S. Army tank. The three accused men never were in Spanish custody. The charges carried possible jail sentences of 10 to 20 years. Judiciary sources said Pedraz would formally "archive" the case on Friday, "in accordance with the criteria of his hierarchical superiors". Last month, U.S. authorities refused Pedraz permission to question the three soldiers implicated in Couso's death: Sgt. Thomas Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp of the 3rd Armored Division of the U.S. Infantry. The United States rejected Spanish jurisdiction in the matter and repeated the official version of the U.S. Army that the round that killed Couso was launched as part of an action of returning enemy fire, presumably from Iraqis in another part of the hotel. Tedious details at the link.

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Iraq

Minnesota lawmaker cuts short Iraq trip, military says

2006-02-08

A Minnesota state legislator who traveled to Iraq on his own has apparently left the country after criticism from U.S. and Iraqi officials, according to a military spokesman quoted in a St. Paul Pioneer Press story Tuesday. But the whereabouts of Rep. John Lesch were not clear Tuesday afternoon, and a new posting on the St. Paul DFLer's blog failed to clarify his location. Lesch's legislative assistant, Elizabeth Emerson, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she had spoken to her boss a day earlier and that he was still in Baghdad, with no indication he was planning to leave. Lesch's brother, Jim Lesch, told the newspaper on Monday he didn't know his brother's whereabouts. A message left Tuesday by The Associated Press for a Jim Lesch in St. Paul was not immediately returned. According to the Pioneer Press report, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday that Lesch had left the country but offered no further information. The military spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said he was relieved the 33-year-old lawmaker left the country. "This grandstanding has no place here," Johnson said. "Stay home." U.S. and Iraqi soldiers could have been forced to endanger themselves had Lesch been kidnapped, Johnson said. The two-term lawmaker flew to Iraq on Jan. 29, saying he wanted to see for himself the conditions facing Iraqi citizens in the wake of the U.S. invasion of the country in 2003. State Department officials and his own friends tried to discourage Lesch, who speaks no Arabic and knew no one in the region, from making the trip. In a blog dedicated to the trip, Lesch recounted a number of missteps upon his arrival in Iraq. He haggled with U.S. Embassy officials over attempts to get a visa, and had trouble getting around the city as British contractors warned him that foreigners who ride in Iraqi taxis often get kidnapped. The contractors ultimately paid for a taxi driven by a sympathetic Iraqi because Lesch had no cash. In a new blog entry posted Tuesday afternoon, Lesch wrote that "life goes on as usual." He then writes about his stay in Baghdad's Palestine Hotel but doesn't make clear if he's still there. Mithal Alusi, founder of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation, said he spoke with Lesch last week in Baghdad and reprimanded him. Alusi has dodged several assassination attempts since the U.S. invasion, and his two sons were slain in January 2005. "I told him, 'You are crazy,"' Alusi said. "I don't like to talk to politicians this way, but he made me very sad." Hadn't heard of this guy before seeing the article on a local TV channel's website. His blog is found here: http://johnlesch.blogspot.com

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Iraq

Bombers Kill 65 at Two Mosques in Iraq

2005-11-18

Suicide bombers killed 65 worshippers at two Shiite mosques near the Iranian border Friday while in Baghdad two car bombs destroyed the blast wall protecting a hotel housing international journalists and killed eight Iraqis. Is it against their religion to put up barriers and reroute traffic around Shiite mosques? Just asking, cause their learning curve seems to have a slope of zero. The suicide attackers targeted the Sheik Murad mosque and the Khaniqin Grand Mosque in Khanaqin, 90 miles northeast of Baghdad, as dozens of people were attending Friday prayers, police said. Seventy-five people were wounded in addition to the 65 killed, the police command said. The blasts near the Hamra hotel in Baghdad knocked down the concrete walls protecting the hotel and blew out windows but did no structural damage to the hotel. However they brought down several other buildings and left a large crater in the road. Firefighters and U.S. troops joined residents in digging through the debris for victims. The attack would be the first against a hotel housing international journalists since the Oct. 24 triple vehicle bomb attack against the Palestine Hotel, where The Associated Press, Fox News and other organizations live and work. "What we have here appears to be two suicide car bombs (that) attempted to breach the security wall in the vicinity of the hotel complex, and I think the target was the Hamra Hotel," U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl Horst told reporters at the scene. Gunfire followed the blasts, which came less than a minute apart and echoed throughout downtown Baghdad. Saad al-Ezi, an Iraqi journalist with The Boston Globe, was inside the hotel. "They were trying to penetrate by displacing the blast barriers behind the hotel and then get to the hotel," he said. "I woke up to a huge explosion which broke all the glass and displaced all the window and doors frames." At first the target appeared to be an interior ministry building where U.S. troops on Sunday found about 170 detainees, some of whom appeared to have been tortured. "The investigation is under way, but the initial reports indicate so far the first car bomber was trying to pave the way for the second one, not on the main road, but on a secondary road to get in and hit the Hamra hotel, not the interior ministry," said Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, the deputy interior minister. The United Nations' top rights official on Friday called for an international investigation into the conditions of detainees in Iraq. "In light of the apparently systemic nature and magnitude of that problem, and the importance of public confidence in any inquiry, I urge authorities to consider calling for an international inquiry," said Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Prominent Sunni Arabs have complained for months about abuse by interior ministry forces, whom they claim have been infiltrated by Shiite militias. The Sunnis called for an international investigation after the Jadriyah detainees were found. The government denies the militia allegations. "I reject torture and I will punish those who perform torture," said Interior Minister Bayn Jabr, a Shiite. "No one was beheaded, no one was killed" — a clear reference to the beheadings of foreign and Iraqi hostages by insurgents including al-Qaida's Iraq wing. He also said "those who are supporting terrorism are making the exaggerations" about torture and that only seven detainees showed signs of abuse. In a statement Thursday, the U.S. Embassy said Iraqi authorities had given assurances that they will investigate the conditions of detainees found Sunday night and that the abuse of prisoners "will not be tolerated by either the Iraqi government" or U.S.-led forces anywhere in the country. U.S. officials have refused to say how many detainees showed signs of torture and whether most were Sunnis, pending completion of an Iraqi investigation. Also on Friday, insurgents attacked U.S. and Iraqi troops in western Iraq, setting off gunbattles that left 32 dumbasses insurgents dead, a U.S. military statement said. One Marine and an Iraqi soldier suffered minor injuries during the attack, the U.S. forces said. Most of the fighting took place around the a mosque in the center of the town. "Marines reported that they received sustained small arms fire originating from the islamic ammo dump mosque," the statement said. "A nearby U.S. Army outpost also reported receiving enemy fire from the area surrounding the mosque." The U.S. forces estimated that at least 50 insurgents took part in the coordinated attack, which quickly dissipated when the Iraqi and U.S. forces returned fire, the military said. Iraqi troops entered the mosque and found spent ammunition. America's death toll rose Thursday as the U.S. military reported a U.S. Marine killed the day before in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad. An Army soldier died Thursday in a traffic accident near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad and a second soldier died in another accident near Balad, the command said.

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Europe

Spanish court upholds warrants for US soldiers

2005-10-28

Spain's National Court upheld warrants for the arrest on murder charges of two U.S. Army officers and a sergeant in the killing of a Spanish journalist in Baghdad in 2003. A state attorney had challenged the warrants, saying the Spanish tribunal did not have jurisidiction in the matter of the killing television cameraman Jose Couso in April 2003. He also cited what he said were procedural flaws in the issue of the warrants. Couso, who worked for Spain's Telecinco network, was killed while filming from a balcony of the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital. A colleague from Reuters, Ukrainian photographer Taras Protsyuk, also died from the explosion of the round fired by a U.S. Army tank. National Court judge Santiago Pedraz rejected the state attorney's challenge, saying "there is sufficient reason to believe they are responsible" for the murder of the men and for the additional offence of "crimes against the international community". The charges carry jail sentences of 15 to 20 years and 10 to 15 years, respectively. Pedraz said in Friday's statement that the warrants are not "a reprisal" for the lack of cooperation of U.S. authorities with Spain's investigation into the incident. Spain is an ally of the United States in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but relations between Washington and Madrid have been strained since the Socialist government pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq in April 2004. Pedraz, in issuing the warrants last week, said the move was "the only effective means of assuring the presence of those implicated before Spain's judicial authority, in light of the total absence of judicial cooperation by U.S. authorities in efforts to clear up what happened". He said he had twice requested assistance from the United States under the terms of existing bilateral accords, asking in April 2004 for specific documents and in June of this year for testimony from the three soldiers. The three men named in the warrants are Sgt. Thomas Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp. Couso's relatives, backed by organizations including Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, are pressing the criminal case after rejecting a Pentagon report clearing U.S. military personnel of any wrongdoing in the incident. Sgt. Gibson was the one who fired from an M1 Abrams tank after seeing someone was using binoculars to observe his group from Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, where most of the foreign journalist covering the U.S. invasion of Iraq were staying. A month after the incident, Gibson told Telecinco, "I didn't fire on him immediately. I called my superiors and told them what I had seen. Ten minutes later, they called me and told me to fire on him, and so I did." His immediate superior, Capt. Wolford, authorized him to fire after the gunner told him he had seen someone in the hotel using binoculars, according to an interview Wolford gave the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur. Lt. Col. De Camp, in an interview published in the Los Angeles Times in April, also acknowledged that he authorized the firing on the hotel. The three men named in the Spanish warrants cannot be arrested in the United States. But they would be subject to detention, with an eye to extradition to Spain, if they travel to a nation that has an extradition treaty with Madrid.

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