New questions on Iraq hotel deaths

A report has raised new questions about the deaths of cameraman Taras Protsyuk and a Spanish Telecinco network cameraman, Jose Couso. They were killed by a tank shell that hit the Palestine Hotel on 8 April, 2003.

Reuters said on Tuesday it would write to the US Senate Armed Services Committee to push for another inquiry.

US Internet news and current affairs broadcaster Democracy Now on 15 May posted an interview with a former US Army sergeant in military intelligence who said that prior to the invasion of Iraq she had been given a list of targets for potential attack that included the Palestine Hotel.

A large foreign media contingent stayed at the Palestine Hotel in the lead-up to the invasion and then during the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

A Reuters investigation into the killings identified a breakdown in communications between US military commanders and troops on the ground.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a media watchdog, also investigated the incident and said the attack “while not deliberate, was avoidable”. ■