'The Americans just don't care'
2005-06-29 15:23
Baghdad - The United States military said on Wednesday it would probe the killing of an Iraqi television producer by its troops after he drove too close to their convoy, as family and friends laid him to rest amid anger and high emotion.
"One of our units were involved. The incident is under investigation," a US spokesperson, Major Darryl Wright, told AFP after the death of Ahmed Wael al-Bakri who worked for privately-owned Al-Sharqiyah television.
In a rare move, the US embassy issued a statement of condolences to his family and employer.
"We were deeply saddened and hurt by Mr Wael al-Bakri's death and as is the case with incidents of unintentional killing, the investigation is ongoing and we are trying our best to find out the details of the accident," it said.
The Iraqi police and an interior ministry spokesperson said Bakri was killed after his car drove too close to a US military patrol in Saidiyah in southern Baghdad on Tuesday.
US military convoys driving in Baghdad's congested streets usually attach a large board to the back of the last vehicle warning drivers in both Arabic and English to keep at least 100m away.
The US military insists its policy is not to allow civilian vehicles to overtake its convoys because of the high risk of attacks, and there have been several incidents of people being fired upon after coming too close.
US troops are the frequent target of attack by insurgents who frequently use suicide car bombers against their patrols.
At Bakri's family home, women screamed and men fired shots into the air as a pickup truck bearing his coffin draped in an Iraqi flag pulled up.
"The Americans just do not care, this happens the whole time," said an angry and tearful Taleb Maan, 32, Bakri's best friend and colleague.
At least 51 journalists and other media workers have been killed in Iraq, some by US fire, since the US-led invasion that ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein more than two years ago.