A special Deutsche Welle report about a Spanish TV cameraman who was killed by a U.S. tank shooting at the Palestine hotel in Baghdad.
On April 8, 2004, a cameraman, Jose Couso, from the Spanish TV station Telecinco, who along with a Reuters cameraman, died from wounds after a coalition tank shell hit Baghdad's Palestine Hotel. The hotel was known to be an operations base for international journalists. The same shell also killed Taras Protsyuk, a television cameraman for the Reuters news agency.
U.S. Central Command said its forces came under "significant enemy fire" from the buildings and responded "consistent with the inherent right of self-defense." Journalists from three western television networks told CNN, however, that they were in the Palestine Hotel when the tank fired and saw no outgoing fire from the hotel.
The same day, U.S. air strikes severely damaged the Baghdad office of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite network, killing journalist Taraq Ayyoub. Al-Jazeera cameraman Zouhair al-Iraqi was injured in the blast, according to the station. Moments later, another explosion damaged the nearby office of Abu Dhabi TV. Some 30 journalists were trapped in the station's offices.
The Committee to Protect Journalists and others expressed outrage and called for immediate and thorough investigations. The Committee and others have questioned whether the journalists were deliberately targeted. Since March 2003 at least 32 journalists and 11 media workers have been killed in action in Iraq by Iraqi forces, armed groups, and U.S. troops. U.S. officials have expressed regret for the loss of life in the April 8 attacks and stated that they do not target journalists.
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