Shattering several days of relative calm across Iraq, a spate of violence yesterday claimed the lives of eight Iraqis, a Danish soldier, and a journalist in three separate incidents. The Danish soldier died in a clash with looters in the southern city of Basra, a military spokesman said. Two Iraqis were also killed in a gun battle that ensued when the Danish patrol caught thieves trying to steal power lines. On the outskirts of Baghdad, a mortar attack Saturday night on the Abu Ghraib prison killed six Iraqis and wounded 59, according to the US military. It was unclear who mounted the attack, the military said in a statement. Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, 41, a Palestinian who has worked for the British news agency for a decade, was shot and killed yesterday while filming outside Abu Ghraib prison. Reuters quoted witnesses as saying that US soldiers shot Dana, and in Washington, the US military confirmed the shooting, saying the troops thought the camera was a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. “Army soldiers engaged an individual they thought was aiming an RPG at them. It turned out to be a Reuters cameraman,” Navy Captain Frank Thorp, a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.