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| Iraq |
| US bombs own convoy in N Iraq |
| 2003-04-06 |
| US forces have bombed a convoy of American special forces and Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq, the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson says. John Simpson, who himself suffered minor injuries in the attack, said he could see a lot of bodies. He described the attack as a "bad own goal" by the Americans. This is terrible, but it seems to be the price to be paid for the kind of high tech aerial campaign that the Coalition is running.. The convoy contained between eight and 10 cars, two of which contained US special forces. Among the injured is thought to be a senior Kurdish political figure, our correspondent says. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #2 OK, here's audio of the incident Barnes describes, and video of Simpson's report. Enjoy the blood-stained camera lens. The audio is garbled right after Simpson tells the medic to shut up and go away; wonder what was in that portion. The video report is a good deal more detailed than the text on the web site. Simpson says that one of the American officers in their convoy called in an air strike to deal with some Iraqi tanks, and the pilots bombed the convoy instead. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2003-04-06 17:24:52 |
| #1 For an...interesting...version of Simpson's report, see this LGF comment by Ken Barnes. The report is now redacted considerably from Barnes' version, so we have only his word on it. Google apparently did not preserve what he says is the original. If I understand correctly, Simpson was reporting live, and a medic ran over to tell him that he (Simpson) had been hit in the leg by shrapnel. Simpson instantly assumed that the medic was going to stop him reporting this embarrassing incident (which is terrible, as well as embarrassing). In a previous comment, Barnes says they must have been using some sort of audio transcription, since it does read very much like a transcript, rather than a written report. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2003-04-06 16:34:11 |