Two CNN employees were killed and another was wounded Jan. 27 as they traveled in cars headed to Baghdad.
Dead are Duraid Isa Mohammed, 27, a translator and producer, and Yasser Khatab, 25, a driver. CNN cameraman Scott McWhinnie, who was traveling in a different car, was grazed in the head.
The attack occurred when a vehicle approached the CNN convoy from the rear. A shooter standing through the car’s sunroof opened fire with an AK-47. The car Mohammed and Khatab were in lost control and drove off the road.
McWhinnie was treated for his injury at a U.S. forward base.
In another incident related to the Iraq war, Reuter’s global managing editor David Schlesinger has sent a letter to the Pentagon expressing concern over the case of three Reuters employees detained Jan. 2 for three days by U.S. forces near Fallujah. Schlesinger requested that the Pentagon investigate the incident.
In a separate development, the Reuters news agency has lodged a written complaint with the U.S. military’s "failure to address its concerns about the safety of journalists in Iraq."
In a letter to the Pentagon, Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger expressed concern about the case of three Reuters employees who were detained on January 2 and held for three days by U.S. troops earlier this month near the Iraqi town of Fallujah. The letter reiterated Reuters’ request for a U.S. military investigation into the incident.
The Reuters employees were a cameraman, a journalist and a driver who had arrived on the scene of a downed U.S. helicopter. Reports indicate that a fourth journalist working for NBC was detained as well.
The letter from Schlesinger comes nearly two weeks after the Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter to coalition commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez about the matter. In it, the CPJ executive director Ann Cooper wrote: “The journalists said they came under U.S. fire while attempting to cover the aftermath of the downing of a U.S. helicopter by guerrillas and were later detained by U.S. soldiers, Reuters reported.”
The three detained Reuters employees were cameraman Salem Ureibi, journalist Ahmad Mohammad Hussein al-Badrani, and driver Sattar Jabar al-Badrani. The NBC journalist involved was Ali Mohammed Hussein al-Badrani.
For more information, please visit www.cpj.org/.
