Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Go Kentucky
Two days ago I wrote about a story from Agence France-Presse which breathlessly proclaimed "45 people killed in insurgent attacks" only to explain later that 29 out of those 45 people were insurgents themselves.
A major component of that casualty tally was an ambush that went badly wrong for the insurgents, seven miles southeast of Baghdad. Here's the story of how three squads of the Kentucky-based 617th Military Police Company killed 27 insurgents (three more than the original reports indicated) while suffering three Guards wounded. Says Sgt. 1st Class Marshall Ware, platoon sergeant for the squads involved: "From Day 1, there was an emphasis on training. We trained and trained and trained... The Guard is not the same Guard it was two years ago. They're as good as any active duty unit." Hence, Exhibit 1.
Here's also the ABC news story of the ambush.
As it usually happens, the ambush was video-taped by one of the insurgents. Our special correspondent Dan Foty reports that ABC played more or less the whole tape, which ends with the cameraman being himself shot, chanting "Allah u Akbar" a few times and toppling to the ground.
Here's the CBS news segment which contains some - but not all - of that footage. In fact, towards the end I can hear the invocation of Allah, but the last few moments aren't shown.
Update: Reader Patrick Chester asks: "Would this count as a 'deliberately-targeted' journalist?"
Eason Jordan, you are now vindicated.
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A major component of that casualty tally was an ambush that went badly wrong for the insurgents, seven miles southeast of Baghdad. Here's the story of how three squads of the Kentucky-based 617th Military Police Company killed 27 insurgents (three more than the original reports indicated) while suffering three Guards wounded. Says Sgt. 1st Class Marshall Ware, platoon sergeant for the squads involved: "From Day 1, there was an emphasis on training. We trained and trained and trained... The Guard is not the same Guard it was two years ago. They're as good as any active duty unit." Hence, Exhibit 1.
Here's also the ABC news story of the ambush.
As it usually happens, the ambush was video-taped by one of the insurgents. Our special correspondent Dan Foty reports that ABC played more or less the whole tape, which ends with the cameraman being himself shot, chanting "Allah u Akbar" a few times and toppling to the ground.
Here's the CBS news segment which contains some - but not all - of that footage. In fact, towards the end I can hear the invocation of Allah, but the last few moments aren't shown.
Update: Reader Patrick Chester asks: "Would this count as a 'deliberately-targeted' journalist?"
Eason Jordan, you are now vindicated.
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