Iraq bomb: Did media know?

2004-10-26 12:43

Sydney - An investigation has been ordered into whether the media was tipped off before a car bombing that caused Australia's first casualties in the Iraq conflict, foreign minister Alexander Downer said on Tuesday.

In the first direct attack on Australian forces in Iraq, a car bomb was set off as a convoy of three light armoured vehicles drove by on a routine patrol 350m from the Australian embassy in Baghdad on Monday.

Two of the three soldiers have left hospital and the third, who suffered serious facial injuries, were expected to recover after surgery. Three Iraqi bystanders were killed and 16 others, including young children, were wounded.

A group loyal to al Qaeda-linked militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility in a statement posted on an Islamist website that could not be independently verified.

Downer said the government had no warning of the blast but others may have.

"There's something that we are investigating which is that the media, some elements of the media were on the site apparently within two minutes of the bomb going off," he told a Melbourne radio station.

Media owes explanation

He said there could be an innocent explanation or the media could have been there by coincidence.

"Another explanation is that somebody in the media was tipped off about this and that was how they got there as quickly as they did."

He said it was possible that al-Zarkawi's group was responsible for the attack, as claimed. But he believed it was unlikely Australian forces were deliberately targeted and more likely it was aimed more broadly at coalition forces.

Defence minister Robert Hill also said the government suspected militants had targeted US-led forces and not specifically Australian vehicles, but an investigation was under way to find out.

"I am not sure they distinguish between the vehicles of various contributors," he said.

The comments appeared to contradict a statement by a US army major who said at the scene: "It was an Iraqi taxi cab and it parked on the side of the road there, waited for a target which was obviously the Australians and they blew up."

There are almost 300 Australian troops in the country, mostly involved in comparatively safe roles.

- AFP