Leaked video shows US forces killing Reuters reporters

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Leaked video shows US forces killing Reuters reporters

 

 

 

Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:16:30 -0700

 

 

 

Jan Slama <janslama

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Leaked video

purportedly shows US

forces killing Reuters reporters

Video at link

(hosted locally in case YouTube pulls it):

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0405/video-shows-forces-firing-killing-reporters/

 

McChrystal:

'We've shot an amazing number of people ... none has proven to have

been a real

threat to the force'

US military

personnel apparently mistook the cameras slung over the

backs of two Reuters journalists for weapons when they opened fire on

them and

a group of people in a Baghdad

suburb in 2007, recently released video footage purportedly shows.

The

whistleblower Web site Wikileaks on Monday released

a

17-minute video of footage from an Apache helicopter that was

reportedly

one of two helicopters involved in a fight against insurgents in the

neighborhood of New Baghdad on July 12, 2007.

The video

purportedly shows the deaths of

Reuters journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22 and Saeed Chmagh, 40, along

with six

other people on a street corner. It also shows US

forces firing on a minivan in

which two injured children were found.

"The

military did not reveal how the

Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the

children

were injured," Wikileaks states.

The two

reporters arrived in the area after

reports of skirmishes between US forces and insurgents. According to media

news

site The Baron, "there was no fighting on the streets in which

Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh were moving about."

The video

seems to substantiate that report, as

it shows Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh (identified on the tape by arrows)

walking

around in a group of people who don't appear to be engaged in fighting.

"Although some of the men appear to have been armed, the behavior of

nearly everyone was relaxed," Wikileaks notes, suggesting that the men

weren't involved in the fighting reportedly taking place in the area.

The video

shows the Apache helicopter's camera

focusing in on Noor-Eldeen with a camera slung over his back.

"That's a

weapon," a voice can be

heard saying on the video. Moments later, the US

service member announces he has

"five to six individuals with AK-47s. Request permission to engage."

"Roger

that," comes the response.

The video

then shows a massive volley of gunfire

from the helicopter at the group of people including the two reporters.

"We just engaged eight individuals," the US

service

member is heard saying.

The camera

then shows a person, identified by

Wikileaks as Chmagh, running frantically away from the gunfire. The

camera

follows the reporter down a city block, and Chmagh can be seen falling

in a

hail of gunfire.

A

shortened, 17-minute version of the video can

be viewed below. For the full-length video,

In its press

release on the incident, the US military announced it had killed

nine

insurgents during a firefight. "Two civilians were killed during the

firefight," the statement added. "The two civilians were reported as

employees for the Reuters news service."

But

Wikileaks offers the video as evidence there

was no firefight in the location where US forces launched the

attack. According

to the Committee to Protect Journalists, witnesses said there were

no

gunfights in the area at the time of the attack.

Following

the shooting, the Reuters news agency demanded

an

investigation. According to Wikileaks, the US

military determined that the

shooting was carried out in accordance with the rules of engagement.

Reuters

reportedly obtained the video of the

incident under a Freedom of Information request in August, 2007.

Allegations

that the US

carelessly killed civilians in its Iraq

and Afghanistan war

have

been around for years, but they appeared to be corroborated last month

by no

less an authority than Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of US troops in Afghanistan.

During a

virtual town hall discussion of the

problems involved with "escalation of force" situations, where troops

escalate a situation towards violence usually due to non-compliance by

civilians, McChrystal

said: "We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number

and,

to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the

force."

McChrystal

added: "[T]o my knowledge, in

the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have

engaged in

an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that

the

vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had

families in

it."

Since its

release earlier Monday, the Wikileaks

video has made waves online. As of Monday afternoon, it occupied all

four of

the top spots on the social news site Reddit.com.

This video

is from WikiLeaks,

uploaded to YouTube

April 3, 2010.