NEW YORK, May 28: US forces shelled the Palestine Hotel in Iraq on April 8 without evidence of a fire from the hotel in which some 100 journalists were staying killing two injuring many, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday.
In a report released here, the New York based CPJ said in the aftermath of the attack, US military officials have given a variety of explanations for the shelling of the Palestine Hotel, mainly alleging that US forces came under “significant enemy fire” from the hotel, that there was an Iraqi bunker next to the hotel, and that Iraqi fire was coming from the hotel’s lobby.
However, according to CPJ”, “There is simply no evidence to support the official US position that US forces were returning hostile fire from the Palestine Hotel. It conflicts with eyewitness testimonies of numerous journalists in the hotel.”
The CPJ maintained that it’s investigation titled “Permission to Fire,” provides new details suggesting that the attack on the journalists, while not deliberate, was avoidable.
CPJ maintained that the Pentagon officials, as well as commanders on the ground in Baghdad, knew that the Palestine Hotel was full of international journalists and that they were intent on not hitting it.
However, these senior officers apparently failed to convey their concern to the tank commander who fired on the hotel.
Written by Joel Campagna, CPJ’s senior programme coordinator responsible for the Middle East, and research consultant Rhonda Roumani, “Permission to Fire” is based on interviews with a dozen reporters who were at the scene of the attack, including two embedded journalists who monitored radio traffic before and after the shelling occurred, and journalists who witnessed the strike from inside the Palestine Hotel.
During the intense fighting that occurred on the morning of April 8, a US battalion encountered stiff resistance from Iraqi forces. It was determined that an Iraqi forward observer, or spotter, was guiding the attacks against the Americans, and a frantic search for the spotter began. During this search a US tank officer believed he had sighted a person with binoculars in the Palestine Hotel, and received permission to fire on the building a short while later.
Journalists covering the US military command headquarters in Baghdad that morning told CPJ that commanders there were aware that the Palestine Hotel was in the vicinity of the fighting, and that journalists were staying in the hotel. That information, and the location of the hotel, apparently wasn’t relayed to the tank battalion until it was too late.