Reuters journalists killed by US attack: analysis

A gritty war video circulating on the Internet that shows US troops firing repeatedly on a group of men, some of whom were unarmed, walking down a Baghdad street is authentic, a senior US military official confirmed on Monday. The official said the video posted at Wikileaks.org was of a July 12, 2007, firefight involving Army helicopters in the New Baghdad District of eastern Baghdad.
The Pentagon would not confirm the video's authenticity on the record, despite repeated requests from The Associated Press. The US military headquarters in Iraq issued a statement on Monday saying "at this time, we are working to verify the source of the video, its veracity, and when or where it was recorded."
Among those believed to have been killed in that attack were Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.
Two children were also wounded. The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly about the video, said the military could not confirm the identities of the Reuters employees in the film. The military also provided redacted copies of portions of its inquiry into the July 2007 incident, again without confirming that the incident described in those documents is the same one posted by Wikileaks. According to a July 19 summary of the investigation, obtained by The Associated Press, US troops acted appropriately. Reuters employees were likely "intermixed among the insurgents" and difficult to distinguish because of their equipment, the document states.
"It is worth noting the fact that insurgent groups often video and photograph friendly activity and insurgent attacks against friendly forces for use in training videos and for use as propaganda to exploit or highlight their capabilities," the document concludes.
The incident has been reported before, but the video had not been released previously.
The video provides a rare close-up of modern urban warfare at a time when violence was near its peak in Baghdad and the US death toll was mounting.
In this incident, soldiers flying attack helicopters were called in to assist ground troops who had been pinned down by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
According to US officials, the pilots arrived at the scene to find a group of men approaching the fight with what looked to be AK-47s slung over their shoulders and at least one rocket-propelled grenade.
A military investigation later concluded that what was thought to be an RPG was really a long-range photography lens; likewise, the camera looked like an AK-47.
The video would seem to underscore the dangers of urban warfare faced by soldiers, civilians, and journalists alike. "The thing about the Iraq war, and certainly by 2007, this was true, is that you had friends and enemies everywhere on the battlefield," said Michael O'Hanlon, a defence policy expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.
"If you were unidentified, you had potential friendly fire not too far away at a moment's notice," he added.
Wikileaks.org posts video and documents passed along by anonymous sources.
They posted the video of the July 2007 firefight at "collateralmurder.com."
The shooters can be heard asking for permission to engage, and one says "Light 'em up!"
The helicopters later destroy a vehicle that arrived on the scene to help a wounded man.
When ground forces arrive, the video shows what looks to be a child being carried from the vehicle and US troops saying the child should be sent to a local Iraqi hospital.
"Well, it's their fault bringing their kids into the battle," a cockpit voice can be heard saying.
O'Hanlon says foul or insensitive language is common in warfare, although it's not commonly brought to the public's attention in this way. "Young soldiers in war zones tend to say things and act in ways that we might find a little less noble or heroic than we would sometimes like to believe. These are often very young kinds in dangerous places," said O'Hanlon.
Reuters said it couldn't verify that the video was of its employees dying, even though it looks like one of the men killed had a camera slung over his shoulder.