US Troops Kill Al-Arabiya Journalist

18/03/2004| IslamWeb

US occupation forces have shot dead al-Arabiya cameraman and injured two others working for the station in Baghdad. The Dubai-based satellite station reported that its employee 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 was also injured and is reported by the station that he's in a serious condition. A sound engineer, was also hurt. 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. 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. **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. At least 15 people were injured in the explosion, including three seriously, said hospital officials. No British occupation troops were wounded. In the town of Baquba, unidentified attackers 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. **PHOTO CAPTION*** An Iraqi policeman guards the area after a bomb exploded outside Basra's Mirbad hotel March 18, 2004, killing at least four people and wounding two, two days before the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. (Atef Hassan/Reuters)