Upon Further Review: Collateral Murder?
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Yesterday I reviewed the gun camera video from the July 12 2007 engagement in which a Reuters cameraman and his driver were killed in Iraq after a U.S. Apache helicopter opened fire on a group of men. This was posted by the WikiLeaks website under the title Collateral Murder.
I gave my analysis, based on what I could see on the tape, including my conclusion that the crew failed to ascertain the group of men was in fact comprised of enemy fighters.
Since then I have obtained and read the Army’s 15–6 investigation, which concludes the Reuters cameraman and the driver “were in the company of armed insurgents who had been firing on Bravo company…”. The investigation, which you can read here in its entirety, says two RPGs and one AK-47 assault rifle were found at the scene.
The report includes still frames from the same video released by WikiLeaks Monday and highlights where one man can be seen carrying a gun, and another an RPG round. I have to say, to my untrained eye, I could not determine those fuzzy images were weapons. It also shows U.S. soldiers carrying the wounded children away from the scene.
The report adds more facts to help explain the context of what happened including a report from soldiers on the ground who reported they were still taking small arms fire and RPG when they got to the site. One picture in the Army purports to show an RPG found at the scene. Presumably it’s alongside a dead body, but the report is redacted to cover the dead, and the round can’t be seen.
I’m still not clear that the Apache crew should have fired on this group, based on what looked like one man carrying an AK-47. But what is clear is this happened in the course of a battle, in which U.S. troops nearby were taking fire. And these “military-age men” as the military likes to call them, appeared to be in some combat role.
It’s also clear this was NOT an indiscriminate killing, and the helicopter crew had no way to know that a journalist was in the group. And look at the pictures. Once you believe the groups has RPG’s the Reuters camerman’s telephoto lens looks for all the world like a rocket launcher poking around the corner of the building.
The report also notes the cameraman was not wearing a PRESS vest, or anything else that would indicate he was a journalist. Not that it would have saved him that day.
If the Reuters photographer was shooting the war from the insurgents’ perspective, he was taking his life in his hands, and he paid dearly for it.
Read the full investigation, before condemning this as an act of “collateral murder.”
Tags: 15-6, Collateral Murder, Iraq, Reuters, WikiLeaks


