A Spanish judge wants to question three U.S. soldiers as suspects in the death of a Spanish cameraman who was killed when a U.S. tank fired on a hotel housing foreign journalists during the 2003 assault on Baghdad.:The Pentagon has found no fault with the soldiers, but High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz wants to question the three men who were in the tank, a court official said on Tuesday.:Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsiuk died and several other people were injured by a shell fired on the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital on April 8, 2003, in the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein.
The judge really ought to pick up a copy of Thunder Run, which explains the circumstances surrounding this incident in some detail. It all started when forces from the Third Infantry Division captured a two-way Motorola radio that was turned on and still working, and promptly turned over to the battalion's intelligence team.
:
From the book:
Chief Warrant Officer Two Willis Young, a fluent Arabic speaker who specialized in human intelligence, was intrigued as he listened to the conversations coming over the radio. He took the radio to Nussio, the batallion's executive officer, who was in the back of his armored personnel carrier next to the converted public toilet that was serving as a command post at the edge of the parade grounds. Young translated for Nussio: someone in a tall building was describing an American tank on the Jumhuriya Bridge. He mentioned that he was in a building that contained a Turkish restaurant.:Nussio radioed Major Rideout at the Republican Palace and warned him that one of Wolford's tanks was being observed by an Arabic-speaker in a building across the river. He was concerned that the speaker was a forward observer -- a spotter -- for Iraqi mortar and artillery crews.:Rideout radiod Wolford at the intersection: "Hey, you've got FO across the river with eyes on you. You need to pay close attention. I'll get back to you with more later.":A minute later, Nussio radioed Rideout with an update. The voice on the radio was now describing more tanks across the river. He was telling someone he wanted mortars fired to try to hit the tanks he saw on the bridge.:Rideout radioed back to Wolford and warned him to watch for mortars.:"We're getting moratars already!" Wolford told him. He described a garage across the river where RPG teams had taken cover behind construction equipment and were firing on his tanks. It was near the tan high-rise building. Rideout told Wolford to look for a building with a Turkish restaurant. That's where the forward observer was.
Word then goes out to look for the FO. The story picks back up with a Staff Sergeant Gibson:
The tanks were receiving RPG and small-arms fire not only from the tan high-rise building across the river, but also from gunmen running up and down a stretch of the opposite riverbank that extended hundreds of meters south of the bridge. Some of the tanks returned fire with coax and .50 caliber at RPG and machine-gun positions along that section of the opposite bank. As Gibson searched the opposite bank for anyone in a high-rise building, his gunner yelled up to him, "Hey, Sergeant Gibson, I got a guy over here looking at us with binoculars." It was a man on the upper floor of a light-colored high-rise across the river, about a kilometer to the south.
:
Gibson dropped down and looked through the tank's magnified sights. The gunner had the sights on 3X magnification. Gibson punched it up to 10X. It was difficult to see through the haze and smoke, but when Gibson scanned the high-rise building the gunner had indicated, he saw a figure holding what appeared to be a pair of binoculars next to something on a tripod.
:
In his tank at the edge of the bridge, Lustig heard Gibson describe the tripod and "some kind of optics." Lustig thought it might be a GLLD, a ground/vehicular laser locater designator -- a tripod-mounted laser targeting device used by forward observers to direct artillery fire.
At this point the information is relayed by a Lt. Middleton to Wolford. After considering the situation Wolford gives permission to fire:
Middleton relayed the order to Gibson, who turned to his gunner and told him, "Fire a HEAT round at the target."
:
The round erupted from the gun tube with an orange flash and tore into the side of the building, just below and to the right of the balcony where Gibson had seen the figure standing. It exploded in a cloud of gray smoke and debris. Gibson was fairly certain he had taken out
the forward observer.
:
Moments later, Major Nussio called Rideout with an update from the monitored Motorola conversations. "Whatever you're doing, keep it up. This guy is now calling his buddy and saying he's getting suppressed and has to move."
:
Rideout radioed Wolford and told him, "Whatever you're f***ing doing right now, keep it up! You're starting to move the guy around. He has to find a new location." Rideout thought it was a hell of a coup, to drive out a forward observer using a captured radio.
The HEAT round, of course, rather than driving away the enemy FO had actually fatally wounded Couso and Protsiuk.
No comments:
Post a Comment