Friday February 23, 2007 10:16 PM
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The Iraqi Union for Journalists said Friday it has demanded an apology and compensation for a U.S.-led raid on the group's headquarters this week. The U.S. military insisted American troops were not involved.
International journalism advocacy groups also expressed outrage over the raid, which occurred Monday in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Waziriyah, a predominantly Sunni area.
Reporters Without Borders said a U.S. Army mobile unit fired at the headquarters after seeing armed guards, then Iraqi soldiers stormed onto the premises, detained the guards and seized computer equipment.
``We strongly condemn this unjustified attack,'' the Paris-based group said in a statement Friday. ``The building's guards were authorized to carry firearms and did not behave in an aggressive or threatening manner toward the soldiers patrolling the neighborhood.''
The chairman of the union, Shihab al-Timimi, said he had written to U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Iraqi leaders to demand an apology and compensation because the unit broke furniture and other equipment when it stormed into the building.
``Had they asked us to open the door for them, of course we would have done so, instead of breaking the gates and the doors of the union building,'' he said, adding that seven of the building guards had been released Thursday.
Khalilzad's spokesman Lou Fintor said the allegations were being taken ``very seriously'' but that preliminary information indicated ``there were no Multinational Forces - Iraq related operations in the vicinity of the Iraqi Journalists' Union during the timeframe described.''
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver also said the raid was not conducted by American forces.
Al-Timimi insisted U.S. troops were involved, saying ``they were accompanied by a translator as well.''
The discrepancy could not immediately be explained, but the reported raid occurred during a major security operation in which U.S and Iraqi forces are sweeping through neighborhoods in a bid to stop the sectarian violence in the capital.
The journalists' union, which was headed by Saddam Hussein's son Odai under the former regime, has more than 3,000 active members, al-Timimi said.
The International Federation of Journalists also condemned the raid as ``outrageous and inexcusable,'' saying the Iraqi group is part of its global union network.
``They destroyed furniture, ransacked the offices, arrested state-employed security guards, and confiscated 10 computers and 15 small electricity generators destined for the families of killed journalists,'' the organization said in a statement Tuesday.
The advocacy group said it had been working closely with the Iraqi organization and its counterpart in the northern Kurdish region to strengthen protection for journalists who have been hit hard by the rising violence since the U.S.-led invasion nearly four years ago.
According to Reporters Without Borders, at least 101 journalists have been killed since the war started in March 2003, including two this week.
Hussein al-Zubaidi, a journalist with the weekly al-Ahali, was shot to death in the capital on Monday, and the bullet-riddled body of Abdul-Razzaq Hashim al-Khakani, a journalist with radio Jumhuriyat al-Iraq, was found on Tuesday, a week after he was kidnapped in eastern Baghdad, the organization said.
Posted at March 2, 2007 09:51 AM