ARBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan -- We arrived today in Arbil, the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government, to find a city on edge and in mourning. An American fighter jet had just hit a convoy of peshmergas and U.S. Special Forces in a friendly fire incident that left at at least seven Kurdish fighters and possibly three American troops dead. Also killed were several civilians, including the translator for BBC's John Simpson, Kameran Abdulrazzaq.
The details of the attack remain unclear, but the attack by an F-15E Strike Eagle seems to have occurred after the lightly armed Kurds and American troops captured one or two Iraqi tanks intact, said Fawzi Hariri, assistant to the head of the International Affairs bureau for the KDP. The pilot of the American plane mistook the allied forces on the ground and attacked.
Abdulrazzaq, an engineer by training, was a Simpson's translator. When he couldn't find a job, one of Hariri's aides told me, he took the job with the BBC to earn money.
Simpson himself was slightly injured in the attack, and one of the BBC's vehicles was almost destroyed. The incident occurred earlier today on the road between Peeardawid and Dybaga, beyond Kalek toward the Iraqi front, Hariri said.
As J. and I pulled up to the hotel, we saw the husk of the BBC Range Rover. All its windows were blown out and it's front and back ends showed clear impact damage. The front was torn to hell and burned a bit. It's a miracle they were able to get it back to the hotel.
The city itself seems edgy and nervous, as can well be expected. Many residents are glued to Al Jazeera, seeking news of friends or relatives who may have been injured. [J. told me later that he ran into a man on the street who asked if he was American and asked about the incident. J. tried to explain that it was an accident, he said, but the man just shook his head and said, "Very bad, very bad." It remains to be seen how this attack will affect the Kurds' feelings towards the United States, especially considering the brother of Massoud Barzani, head of the KDP was among the injured.]
Welcome to the war.
[From Chris, 10:39 p.m.: I added some stuff from J. and edited a little bit -- fixing line endings and moving Hariri's attribution up so it made sense. Such are the hazards of moving paragraphs around using copy and paste sometimes.]
welcome to the war is a realistic conclusion I think…
I can’t understand how american troops can mistake so often friends to Iraqui troops !? can anyone explain me?
“The details of the attack remain unclear, but the attack by an F-15E Strike Eagle seems to have occurred after the lightly armed Kurds and American troops captured one or two Iraqi tanks intact, Hariri said.”
Perhaps they were mistaken because they had a captured Iraqi tank with them.
The most fascinating accounts coming out of Iraq are coming from you. And to think you’ve only just arrived. Welcome to the war is right - I’m amazed. Stay safe and keep sending us your gripping reports.
The most fascinating accounts coming out of Iraq are coming from you.
Are the only reports from Chris on the site? (Is there an archive with more detailed stuff? Is he writing for a periodical?)
How can the “most fascinating” reporting you’ve seen be based the few short pages here on the blog? Am I missing something?
I’m confused. The reports here on ‘Back to Iraq’ are nice, yes — but they’re not exactly fascinating. I understand that Chris is moving toward the action, but I’m not sure how (or why) this qualifies (yet, at least) as “fascinating.”
Do the donors get different reports? Do the donors get unedited, first-draft stuff? I’m very confused.
Im confused. The reports here on Back to Iraq are nice, yes but theyre not exactly fascinating. I understand that Chris is moving toward the action, but Im not sure how (or why) this qualifies (yet, at least) as fascinating.
He is one of the few without a minder (US, UK or Iraqi). This alone makes it a lot more interesting than most other stuff.
God bless the souls of the Kurds and American lives. I hope this war stops soon and brings a ever last (if that could be possible) to the Iraqi and Kurdish people in south Kurdistan.
How anyone could not find the accounts Chris is providing amazing is unbelievable.This is the most amazing stuff I’ve read in a long time.Stay safe.
According to John Simpson himself he was with the special forces convoy when the Amercian officer in command saw an Iraqi tank a mile or so away and called in an airstrike.
A few minutes later he saw two American aircraft circling low overhead. He saw the bomb falling from the aircraft and then it hit the ground only 10 yards away.
The explosion killed a dozen or so people outright and injured others including his translater who within minutes had died from blood loss.
His report is here at time 1228GMT…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/indepth/world/2003/reporterslog/default.stm
It seems that either they thought the convoy was the iraqi target or that the bomb wasn’t released at the correct location.
None of the hundreds of journalists in northern Iraq has a minder. But let’s see if he does anything they can’t do.
The over-reliance of the US on air power is causing too many so-called “friendly fire” incidents. Howis it that the Brits haven’t killed any US soldiers?
John Simpsons full indepth report of the incident is here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2921807.stm
I think that all this “friendly casualties” are because US has more and more “intelligent weapons” and they think they do not need anymore “intelligent troops”, not even an intelligent president. Sad.
FYI for everyone posting comments and URLs: I have disabled the use of HTML in comments so that any URLs that are posted will immediately become hyperlinks. This means that if you want to quote someone and would have used the HTML tags for italics, the tags will be stripped out. I did this to make it easier for folks to follow URLs that are posted in the comments.
Michael
RE: None of the hundreds of journalists in northern Iraq has a minder.
RE: How can the most fascinating reporting youve seen be based the few short pages here on the blog? Am I missing something?
They certainly DO have minders - they are “embedded” with U.S. troops, and everything they report goes through corporate U.S. tv editing. How could they possibly be more muzzled? You only have to watch each channel of network news one evening to see that each embedded reporter parrots exactly the same “news”. To me, that is the first glaring difference in Chris’ reporting.
Pirate - ‘NICE’? you seem to read and complain, read and criticize. If you find it uninteresting you are missing the ENTIRE point. It’s so easy to be critical; it’s much harder to get out and do something yourself, like Chris is doing. I hope you will cease following this ‘blog for your own peace of mind, and spare us anymore of your childish griping. Go fetch a barley pop and some Cheetos and turn on some “fascinating” CNN or TVland. Or just go to your room and stay there.
Christopher’s posts before he even entered the country have been more interesting and real than any of the censored news coming out of the traditional press. Now that he is actually in Iraq the reports can only become more fascinating. I don’t understand how anyone reading can be uninterested in the events that have happened so far. Totally independent journalism is extremely rare and very special.
Chris is a brave man to do this. And I think that the reporting he’s doing is pretty impressive when you consider how much sleep he’s been getting and how much stress he’s been under.
You have to understand that “collateral damage” is inevitable. In urban fighting, you have half a second to decide whether or not to shoot somebody. And even the “smart bombs” are not infallible. ~10% fail from mechanical or software problems or jamming, and the accuracy can only be as good as the targeting.
The reason that most mainstream reporting sucks, if it’s not obvious, is that in exchange for not asking hard questions, people get continued access. Of course with the News Corp there may be some slanting towards what Murdoch feels like.
Even if there’s “nothing” happening where he is there’s still a lot going on — defenses being set up, what the locals think about things, etc. And there’ll probably be “something” happening eventually.
Good luck Chris, and hope you don’t need it.
In response to Jan about journalists without minders. There are a lot of journalists who are not embedded with the military—they are called “unilaterals” and are scattered all over Iraq. Check out reports from Robert Fisk, one of the more prominent unilaterals who is in the middle of Baghdad right now. He writes for the Independent at www.independent.co.uk
Hey, I think you’re doing a great job! Thanks!
Well, not that this “friendly” fire bombing isn’t “something.”
And I’m going to guess that in a hypothetical next time, Chris would practice hiking beforehand.
The friendly fire incidents impact a few among a quarter million allied troops. Multiply those numbers by a factor of 100 to equal the population of Iraq, and you likely will find a similar scale of accidents costing the lives of Iraqi innocents.
Chris; I appreciate your dedication to the pursuit of uncensored information, and the huge risks you’ve taken getting there and being there.
I hope the higher powers keep you safe and that your own compass keeps your definitions clear. Such principled journalism is rare and I give it a standing ovation.
That you also write well is a bonus; thank you.
Chris,
I like the travelouge so far. When do you think that you’ll make the front lines? Were you considering “crossing over?” That is, going into Kirkuk or Mosul before the Allies do? I suppose that you would lose your pesh mergas, but it would be one hell of an exclusive in the English speaking press.
To flo: Being where the Air Force doesn’t expect you to be can lead to this sort of incident. I think this is the first (reported) incident of this in the north, so far.
Keep going man. This rocks. Maybe I’ll have to do something like this in Latin America.
Hey Chris! Do you know what you are missing here in the NYC area? SNOW! Amazing, it’s going to snow on Monday…several inches and maybe even a foot. Stay away from convoys! ;)
Heh. I think Chris has had enough of snow for a while.
Hehehheh, maybe that strike eagle pilot has seen what the BBC does with the news. Actually, the weapons are pretty damn good, but the people are still imperfect. Somebody fucked up, and I at least am thankful that it has been relatively rare, all things considered.
Some chucklehead here asked why all the friendly fire mistakes were US air on somebody else…. how come the Brits were flawless? Pretty simple Skippy, we drop about a thousand times more shit than they do every single day. It’s inevitable that something bad is going to happen once in a while, particularly when you’re out in indian country with the kurds. It’s not like you can look down and see an entire freaking division down there. The wingnut has to pick his target out at speed and altitude, and not every guy is the top graduate in his class.
I feel for all those youngsters at the end of the newshour who’ll never get beyond their senior picture. For that poor bastard who drove Michael Kelly into the canal where they both drowned, no doubt because they had forty lbs of shit strapped on them and couldn’t get out of the hummer. They don’t teach you how to swim in a chem suit & boots. Kelly got the obits, and the LCpls’ mom and pop will get the SGLI. Poor David Bloom got more than he bargained for too. It’s a young man’s game, and Jim Morrison was right, nobody gets out alive.
Hi Mr. Christopher,
This is a dumb question, but what are you carrying in your back pack? (actually, your guide is carrying) Do you have toilet paper? Do you have a weapon? Do you have aspirin? First aid kit? Do you have moleskin for your feet? Soap? Sleeping bag? Just curious.
I’m carrying a small change of clothes, a basic first aid kit and my gear. Traveling very lightly. J. has a more extensive first aid kit. If we had known we were going to be hiking so much, yes, we would have prepared better. Alas.
10” of snow on the way in nyc..think of the east village softly blanketed in snow as apple blossoms are starting to pop in thompkins sq. park..if you need to chill…amidst the horror you are enduring. you need to come back to the usa to tell people about what happened in person…
Another Question to Mr. Christopher Allbritton,
How do you intent to circumvent the reported censorship on non-‘embedded’ journalists in iraq?
(I’ve read reports of journalists beeing detained without reason - Can you confirm any of those claims?)
Are you going to ignore US MP to get at the information/pictures you want and risk beeing imprisoned for some time?
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24844
http://www.crf-usa.org/Iraqwarhtml/iraqwarpress.html
Tobias Willhauck
If you look at any of the wars in the past few years you will find that it is always the US that is responsible for friendly fire incidents.
9 Scottish soldiers were killed in the last Gulf War by a US pilot, - Canadians were killed in Afghanistan, - this time round, sofar out of the 25 reported UK casuaties, 23 have been killed by accidents or “friendly fire”, something like 1000 innocent civilians killed this time round - so much for “smart bombs” - why do we have “stupid humans” at the controls?
The US has lost all credibility, I think by starting this war, it will cause more trouble for your country than ever.
I am ashamed that our Prime Minister Blair has dragged the UK into this conflict against the majority of the publics wishes.
I think it will become a long hard drawn out battle in the streets where “superior firepower” won’t give an advantage, look what happened in Vietnam, the US had a kicking from a bunch of peasants with pitch forks.
I just hope with all my heart this can be over as soon as possible with the minimum possible casualties all round.
Take care Chris, you’re doing a fantastic job, good luck.
LMAO, that’s really good. He get’s his history totally fucking wrong, exhibits total ignorance of the news of the events of the past three weeks, and makes a prediction now ludicrous in the light of recent events, then goes on to congratulate you on the quality of your work. Very telling.
I find this fascinating and to those who don’t, a big raspberry. I’ve said this before and here goes again. I can’t understand people who think they have the right to criticize someone else in their own home (in this case blog). Keep the reports flowing!
You go, Brenda, you have unearthed what seems to be a rare concept: if you don’t like it, you don’t read it. If you are not doing something more amazing, don’t scoff at someone else’s creation. And Herbert, forpete’ssake, “he gets”, not “he get’s”. Do not write more public critique until you have mastered the lingo. Chris rocks! - all lesser men may now report to your mothers for apron duty.
Hector,
When you stop laughing, please inform us of what history in my post is incorrect.
It looks like you get your news from CNN or Fox, try looking for a more balanced picture of events and you might see the “bigger picture”, thousands of dead civillians, loads of dead soldiers through friendly fire incidents (mostly caused by the US).
I have not been ignorant of the news in the past three weeks, maybe I don’t get the patriotic bullshit and lies that you get on TV that don’t show you what is really happening?
I didn’t make a prediction, try reading my post, it said “I think it will become” - I was expresseing an opinion - it may go this way, it may not, we just have to wait and see.
I hope for everybody in Iraq that it is over soon and with as little bloodshed as possible.
I praised Chris’s work because he is independant, not an embedded reporter censored by the military, this is important to get a balanced view of what is happening.
Please don’t see my post as an attack on America or it’s citizens, you’re totally missing the point if you think it is.
Hector,
When you stop laughing, please inform us of what history in my post is incorrect.
It looks like you get your news from CNN or Fox, try looking for a more balanced picture of events and you might see the “bigger picture”, thousands of dead civillians, loads of dead soldiers through friendly fire incidents (mostly caused by the US).
I have not been ignorant of the news in the past three weeks, maybe I don’t get the patriotic bullshit and lies that you get on TV that don’t show you what is really happening?
I didn’t make a prediction, try reading my post, it said “I think it will become” - I was expresseing an opinion - it may go this way, it may not, we just have to wait and see.
I hope for everybody in Iraq that it is over soon and with as little bloodshed as possible.
I praised Chris’s work because he is independant, not an embedded reporter censored by the military, this is important to get a balanced view of what is happening.
Please don’t see my post as an attack on America or it’s citizens, you’re totally missing the point if you think it is.
Brenda, Jan, is that not the rhetorical equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying, “lalalalallallalala”?
“look what happened in Vietnam, the US had a kicking from a bunch of peasants with pitch forks.” There is simply no truth to this. Literally every tactical engagement was won by US forces. The Tet Offensive was the “March to Baghdad” for the Viet Cong. When it was over, there were no indiginous Viet Cong, and the North had to resort to sending people South to play the role, and it wasn’t the same.
One could fisk every line of your post, but time has value. Your numbers are borderline fictional, but I’ll give you the point that people make mistakes, and it’s a dangerous business. Then you go on to draw a conclusion for which there is no logical support, and make a claim about the support of the people for the war, which is to my knowledge also not true. Go look at some reputable polling data, or better yet take the issue up with your member of parliment.
“It looks like you get your news from CNN or Fox, try looking for a more balanced picture of events and you might see the bigger picture, thousands of dead civillians, loads of dead soldiers through friendly fire incidents (mostly caused by the US).”
LMAO, there is nothing more twisted and slanted than the combined product of the BBC and Reuters. I’ve watched the BeeB edit press conference comments to twist their meaning, and who can forget Reuters, “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” reporting. It’s called moral relativism.
CNN is corporate drek written for her 60% international market. Fox can be a bit jingoistic, but there is a reason that they are now the dominant US cable news channel and that aint it. It’s because they are the lone non-liberal voice in the market. What do I watch? Everything, literally, and lots of CSPAN, of which you have nothing to equal.
“I have not been ignorant of the news in the past three weeks, maybe I dont get the patriotic bullshit and lies that you get on TV that dont show you what is really happening?”
No, I’m sure you watch all the shit that the BeeB pumps your way, but you lack an historical context to make it fit a logical framework. Less than 150 combined coallition casualties in three weeks of modern warfare is nothing. The lack of casualties, and coherent defense by the Iraqi’s is the marvel of this war.
“I didnt make a prediction, try reading my post, it said I think it will become - I was expresseing an opinion…”
LMAO, what part of forecasting future events is not a prediction?
You’re just very confused, I understand.
Mr. Onepissed Guy,
I too was sharing this opinion. Bush and Blair—two devils in den together. Praise be Allah. Here in Basra, we hate hate hate coalition. But that was yesterday. Today, I got first refrigerator. Hour later, I’m walking down street with big screen Plasma TV. This life was not possible before with Saddam! I am beginning to like this coalition of the willing! Should rot in hell? I don’t think so. Bush and Blair—OK!
Omar
P.S. Good news/bad news. Today food trucks arrive in Basra. That’s good news. Bad news…British food!
LMAO, Omar, the really good plasma screen tv’s are in Doha. Can you get a truck?
“look what happened in Vietnam, the US had a kicking from a bunch of peasants with pitch forks.”
Yep! and at what cost?
What did you win in the end, what was it for, was it all worth it?
This war, what is the US fighting for (apart from oil)?
Many dead innocents and friendly fire (by the US) from the last Gulf war, Kossovo and Afghanistan - not fiction at all.
Here goes some more fiction then :- http://www.iraqbodycount.net/bodycount.htm
but I’ll give you the point that people make mistakes, and it’s a dangerous business. Then you go on to draw a conclusion for which there is no logical support, and make a claim about the support of the people for the war, which is to my knowledge also not true. Go look at some reputable polling data,
Just befor the start of the invasion, there was a phone in poll on a UK radio station, 64% agreed to “Bush being more of a threat to world peace than Hussein”, I have not yet personally met anybody who actually supports the invasion on Iraq. Myself and everybody I know (100% agree) - I’ll be conservative in my estaimate and stick to the poll data!
US Polls 50% or more beleive Iraq was behind 9/11 - is this really true?
We got our own government here, - we don’t have anything to do with the UK parliament!
“It looks like you get your news from CNN or Fox, try looking for a more balanced picture of events and you might see the “bigger picture”, thousands of dead civillians, loads of dead soldiers through friendly fire incidents (mostly caused by the US).”
Got an example???
What’s so twisted and slanted about the Beeb & Reuters? They’re renowned worldwide for information, what do you have that’s better?
How much Al Jazeera you seen in the past week, (Yup slanted toward an Arab point of view, but not pro-Iraq) - I do like to watch all of the different media, and make my own judgements from a view of all of them, not just C-Span like you’ve intimated.
Do you mean what you get in the US, or CNN International? - (you get a differnt face presenting the same bullshit every half hour)
Really, as much as CNN?? - My turn to laugh!!
CSPAN = Great because it’s not liberal?
You make me laugh now
Around 150 coalition casualties, many of them killed by US forces, not the so called “enemy”, over a thousand civilian deaths a marvel?
I would rather be “confused” than sick.
kona baskn amn naum abdulla