US troops shoot dead journalist in Baghdad

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US troops shoot dead journalist in Baghdad

Al-Jazeera | March 19 2004

US occupation forces have shot dead al-Arabiya cameraman Ali Abd al-Aziz and injured two others working for the station in Baghdad.

The Dubai-based satellite station reported Abd al-Aziz was killed late on Thursday near the Burj al-Hayat hotel in central Baghdad.

The television crew was filming the site after it came under rocket fire. US forces opened fire "randomly", reported the station. Its correspondent Ali al-Khatib was also injured and is reported by the station toi be in a serious condition. A sound engineer, whose name was not revealed, was also hurt.

At least 14 journalists have been killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq last year.

Meanwhile, explosions and shootings have racked Iraq in what appears to be an intensification of anti-occupation resistance ahead of the first anniversary of the US-led invasion.

Explosions shook three Baghdad hotels used by foreign business people, contractors and media companies on Thursday evening, a day after a car bomb demolished another Baghdad hotel and killed at least seven.

Hotel guests said the blasts shook the Cedar and Rimal hotels, which face each other on a street in central Baghdad.

It was not clear what caused the explosions.

A US helicopter came down on Thursday south of the flashpoint Iraqi town of Falluja, west of Baghdad, said witnesses.

But US military officials said they had no reports on the incident.

Earlier in Falluja resistance fighters fought occupation troops, leaving at least two civilians dead, including a child, according to witnesses.

Anti-occupation fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at the municipal council building, where a meeting was allegedly taking place between local officials and US occupation authorities. US helicopters circled the area.

US officials said eight occupation soldiers and a marine were injured. But witnesses said one US soldier was killed. There is still no independent confirmation.

Basra blast

In the southern city of Basra, a car bomb exploded as a British occupation patrol passed near a hotel, leaving the car’s driver and three civilians dead, according to police. A child was among those killed.

A man suspected of being involved in the bombing and got out of the vehicle before the blast was apparently caught by passers-by and stabbed to death, said Iraqi police.

At least 15 people were injured in the explosion, including three seriously, said hospital officials. No British occupation troops were wounded.

Compared to other areas in Iraq, the mainly Shia city of Basra has seen few attacks.

In the town of Baquba, assailants opened fire on a minibus carrying employees of the US-funded television station Diyala, killing three Iraqi journalists and wounding nine other employees.

In related news, resistance fighters also fired mortars at two US military bases on Wednesday, killing three occupation soldiers and wounding nine others, the military revealed on Thursday.

Hotel toll unclear

The upsurge in attacks comes less than 24 hours after a car bomb exploded outside of a Baghdad hotel.

The toll from the attack on the Jubal Lubnan (Mount Lebanon) hotel in the busy Karrada district in central Baghdad is still unclear.

US occupation officials originally put the toll at 27. It then revised that to 17 and later on Thursday Brigadier General Mark Kimmit said only seven were killed.

Governing Council official Rowsch Shawayas said Iraqi authorities put the toll at "about 20". Iraq’s health minister Khudair Abbas said seven were killed and 35 injured.

One Briton was killed and another was wounded, said the Foreign Office in London.

Hotel target?

Kimmit also said that they were not sure if the blast was targeting the hotel.

"The hole was in the middle of the street, it is not definitive that the hotel was the target," he said. "The vehicle may have prematurely detonated or was hit by another vehicle causing the detonation," he explained.

Initial reports said that the hotel was inhabited by foreigners. But hotel duty manager Bashir Abd al-Hadi said a Moroccan, three Jordanians, two Britons, two Lebanese and an Egyptian were registered as having rooms in the Lebanese-owned hotel on the night of the blast.

Among those killed were the hotel's three security guards, he said.

Rescue efforts to unearth those buried under the rubble continued overnight but by late afternoon on Thursday, finding survivors was unlikely.

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