BAGHDAD: Insurgents killed two US Marines in Iraq, the US military said on March 19, and an Iraqi journalist allegedly shot by American troops in Baghdad died of his wounds, while US Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged an escalation in insurgents’ attacks.

The attack on first Marine Force occurred on March 17, while the troops were conducting “security and stability operations” in Anbar province, west of Baghdad to the Jordanian border, the statement said. The military provided no other details.

Another soldier died on March 19, from injuries he suffered when the Bradley fighting vehicle he was travelling in rolled 65 meters down an embankment into the Tigris River near Beiji, 200 kilometers north of Baghdad.

In Baghdad, Powell urged Washington’s coalition partners on March 19, not to “run and hide” from their commitment to fight terrorism. His press conference on a one-day visit was preceded by more than 20 Arab journalists walking out in protest against the shooting deaths of two Iraqi reporters, allegedly by US troops. “There has been a spike in attacks on coalition forces and soft targets. We have to shift as the enemy shifts. They move from harder targets to softer targets,” he added.

Among those killed in the past day were five local journalists, including the two apparently shot by American forces. A reporter for Arab satellite television station Al-Arabiya died from his wounds on Friday after US soldiers shot him hours earlier along with an Al-Arabiya cameraman, who died at the scene, said Mohammed Ibrahim, the station’s editing supervisor in Baghdad. Correspondent Ali al-Khatib and the slain cameraman, Ali Abdel-Aziz, were filming a nighttime rocket attack on the Burj al-Hayat hotel when the shooting took place. US soldiers shot the men as they ran from the scene of an accident between a civilian car and a US Army Bradley fighting vehicle, Ibrahim said.
Source: The News
Date:3/20/2004