Reuters News Service is reporting today that U.S. troops have killed 6 Iraqi police and an Iraqi reporter for the New York Times. It is not the first time our troops have killed reporters or people who were supposedly on our side. In fact, journalists have accused U.S. troops of targeting them. The military always promises to investigate. The result is always the same: It was a tragic accident.
But the report, a portion of which appears below, raises a multitude of questions. Should we be conducting raids when we can't tell friend from foe? Can we ever tell when militia members seem to infiltrate Iraqi police, government, and military at every level? Is aerial bombardment appropriate for the middle of a densely populated city? Will it work against the type of guerilla raids we're seeing in Iraq? It never did in Vietnam. I think the answer is no to all of these questions and more. And the Iraqi people are paying the price for our refusal to admit it.
An Iraqi reporter working for the New York Times was also shot dead on his way to work in Baghdad, the newspaper said, a day after two Reuters employees were killed during an incident involving U.S. forces in the city.
Khalid Hassan, 23, was shot in the southern Saidiya district of the capital, the Times said in a statement, adding that the circumstances of the attack were unclear.
A U.S. war plane made an air strike during the raid in mainly Shi'ite east Baghdad after U.S. soldiers came under "heavy and accurate" gunfire from an Iraqi police checkpoint, rooftops and a church, the military said in a statement.
Seven suspected militants were also killed during the clash, in which U.S. soldiers detained an Iraqi police lieutenant on suspicion of planning roadside bomb and mortar attacks on U.S. forces. The military accused him of links with Iranians accused by Washington of fomenting violence in Iraq.
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