] Rival satellite station Abu Dhabi TV announced its ] Baghdad bureau had also been hit and broadcast a live ] report showing its camera position under attack. ] ] As they filmed the arrival of two US tanks on a major ] bridge in central Baghdad close to their offices ] overlooking the river, what appeared to be Iraqi ] machinegun fire clattered out from just beneath the ] camera position. I was watching this one live on TV. The Abu Dhabi camera crew was filming two M-1 tanks attempting to cross a bridge over the Tigris river, and then there were puffs of dust which looked like machine gun fire around the camera, which was then knocked off its stand until it came to rest pointing at a stairwell. It was righted (or maybe they switched to another camera) a few moments later, and the translator of the Arabic broadcast said the Abu Dhabi crew were shouting, "Why are they attacking us? We're just trying to show the truth?!" I meme this because it was very clear to me that the firing was coming from the Iraqis, and not from the Americans. Even this Middle East Online article agrees. It was the Iraqis firing at the camera crew. If the Americans would have wanted to take the TV crew out, the tank had a direct line on them (heck, we were practically staring right down the gun barrel of the tank). I'm still not sure what to think about the tank that was firing at the Palestine Hotel, but in this particular case, it was very clear who was doing the firing, and what they were aiming at. |