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NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > U.S. HAS NO REGRETS IN KILLING OF REPORTER FOR INSURGENT BBC NEWS
U.S. HAS NO REGRETS IN KILLING OF REPORTER FOR INSURGENT BBC NEWS
September 12 2011
Brussels, Belgium – NATO officials have admitted that a U.S. soldier did indeed kill a reporter for the BBC in an incident in July. The reporter, Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, had been working in Afghanistan when was mistaken as a local insurgent, when he was killed during a firefight with NATO forces. 18 other people were killed in the strike, none of whom appeared to be reporters.
Initially, NATO had stated that he was an insurgent despite the presence of press credentials. The BBC protested the killing.
“Ahmed Omed's death further highlights the great dangers facing journalists who put their lives on the line to provide vital news from around the world,” said BBC chief Peter Horrocks. “It is essential that journalists are given the best possible protection whilst reporting in dangerous situations so that the world can hear their stories. Our thoughts are with Ahmed Omed's family and we will continue to do all we can to support them.”
The inquiry determined that the U.S. soldier shot and killed Khpulwak believing that he was a suicide bomber. It’s believed that he would not have been shot had they known he was a reporter, no matter how much they might have wanted to do so.
“It’s a tough thing, in war, to see the bad guys and this is very much what happened here. The fog of war is just as much a risk to the guys with guns as it is to the guys without them, or the guys with bad aim. That appears to be what happened here,” said Scrape TV International Conflict analyst Mario Martinez. “I mean I can understand why they would want to shoot reporters, but they really can’t do that and get away with it. Not in the modern world. In previous wars, maybe, but they make a really big deal out of nowadays.”
The soldier who made the kill shot, who has not been identified, had apparently expressed his dislike for the BBC and their reporting style multiple times. That testimony was quashed during the course of the investigation.
Investigators determined that Khpulwak may have been reaching for his press ID when he was killed, either because the soldiers believed he was reaching for something else or because it showed the BBC as his network.
“I don’t think that a lot of people really understand what news people go through in war, especially when dealing with foreign agents. I mean soldiers are trained to recognize the names of just about every single different news organization but that can also make things confusing, really confusing, and that may have been what happened here. The craziness of war and all,” continued Martinez. “I doubt he was deliberately targeted, it was more than likely just an opportunity-type killing. He had the shot and he took it, and that’s what soldiers are trained to do, like it or not. We may never know the truth of what happened there, and maybe that’s for the best. Otherwise people would report it to everyone.”
Khpulwak’s camera had been on rapid shutter, but that is not believed to have been a factor.
Emil Uliya, International Correspondent
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