[Peace-discuss] BBC summary of war reporting

[C. G. Estabrook]

Iraq war: Unanswered questions

One feature of the war in Iraq was the speed and immediacy with which many
events were reported by the media. Some of these turned out to be not
quite what they seemed, others are still surrounded by confusion. Was this
the fog of war, effects-based warfare, propaganda, or error? BBC News
Online takes stock:


Scuds

Coalition account: On day one of the war, 20 March, military spokesmen for
the US and UK announce that "Scud-type" missiles have been fired into
Kuwait. This was significant because Iraq was banned from having Scuds or
other missiles of a similar range under UN resolutions.

Clarification: Three days later US General Stanley McChrystal reports: "So
far there have been no Scuds launched."


Umm Qasr falls

Coalition account: The fall of Umm Qasr, an Iraqi town and port near the
border with Kuwait, is announced and reported several times in the first
days of the war - the first of these on 20 March. On 21 March Admiral
Michael Boyce, UK chief of defence staff, and Donald Rumsfeld, US defence
secretary, report that the town has fallen to coalition forces.

Other reports: Various media outlets report heavy fighting in Umm Qasr on
22 and 23 March.


Basra uprising

UK military's account: On the evening of 25 March British military
intelligence officials report a "popular civilian uprising" in Basra.
Major General Peter Wall, British Chief of Staff at Allied Central Command
in Qatar, confirms that it appears an uprising has taken place, but that
it is in its infancy and British troops are "keen to exploit its
potential". The officials say Iraqi troops in the city turned mortar fire
on their own civilians in an attempt to crush the unrest.

British journalist Richard Gaisford, who is with the Royal Scots Dragoon
Guards just outside Basra, says British troops are bombarding the mortar
positions in an effort to support the uprising.

Other reports: Also on 25 March Arabic television stations report no sign
of an uprising and that the city is quiet. Iraqi officials deny reports of
an uprising, calling them "hallucinations".

Further UK account: On 26 March, deputy commander of British forces
Major-General Peter Wall says the uprising is "just the sort of
encouraging indication we have been looking for". But he adds: "To avoid
any excessive optimism at this stage I should say we don't have any
absolutely clear indication of the scale and scope of this uprising or
exactly what has engendered it."

Conclusion: There is still no independent verification that an uprising
occurred in Basra.


Tank column

Initial reports: On the evening of 26 March reports emerge that a column
of 120 Iraqi tanks and armoured vehicles are heading south out of Basra.
Major Mick Green, of the UK's 40 Commando, is quoted by the Mirror
newspaper as saying: "We have no idea why this column has come out at the
moment. Their intentions or motives are totally unclear but they have
adopted an offensive posture and do not want to surrender, so we have
attacked them."

Later reports: Newspapers and news bulletins the next morning carry
accounts of fierce fighting and a large battle.

Clarification: Later on 27 March, a British military official is quoted as
saying: "It was 14-0." This is understood to have meant that the Iraqi
column consisted of only 14 vehicles. The official put the initial reports
down to "the fog of war" and an erroneous radar signal.


Market explosions

On 26 March an explosion at a market in Baghdad's Shaab district kills at
least 14 civilians. The BBC's Andrew Gilligan visits the scene. "What
seemed to be two missiles landed in a busy shopping parade. The nearest
military building, civil defence headquarters, is I have to say at least
quarter of a mile away," he reports. The cause of the blast is still
disputed.

Iraqi account: Following the first blast, at Shaab, Iraq claims that
coalition forces are targeting Iraqi civilians.

US account: Initial briefings from US officials say coalition aircraft
targeted nine Iraqi missiles and launchers in Baghdad during 26 March.
Officials say Iraqis have placed the missiles in a residential area less
than 100 metres (300 feet) from homes. Later in the day, the Pentagon
insists that they did not target the market area in Baghdad. Major General
Stanley McChrystal of the US joint staff says he did not know whether the
explosions were caused by a stray US weapon or perhaps Iraqi anti-aircraft
missiles that fell back to earth.

A US military spokesman at coalition Central Command says: "Our early
intelligence report provides no conclusive evidence that we have caused
the damage in the civilian marketplace. One possibility and high
probability is that it was caused from the fallout from the regime's
anti-aircraft fire."

Other reports: The BBC's Andrew Gilligan says that explanation is
"unlikely because we simply haven't heard any anti-aircraft fire in the
city for the past four days".

On 29 March, an explosion at a market in the Shula district of Baghdad
kills more than 50 civilians.

US account: A US Central Command spokesman in Qatar suggests the likely
cause was Iraqi fire. One issue likely to be examined in both market
bombings, the New York Times reports, is the relatively small size of the
craters, in the case of the attack at Shula they were closer to the kind
associated with mortars, artillery shells or small bombs, than to the kind
of craters commonly caused by American bombs or missiles in Baghdad.

Other reports: The British Independent newspaper reports on 2 April that
its correspondent in Baghdad, Robert Fisk, has found a 30-centimetre-long
piece of shrapnel at the site of the Shula bombing showing the serial
number of the bomb. The newspaper says that the number identifies the
cause of the explosion as a US anti-radar missile manufactured in Texas by
the Raytheon company and sold to the US navy.

UK Government account: On 2 April UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says of
the first bombing, in the Shaab district: "It is increasingly probable
that this was the result of Iraqi - not coalition - action."

On 3 April the UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon says that the there is no
evidence that the market bombings were caused by coalition missiles other
than evidence provided by the Iraqi regime. He says that there are Western
intelligence reports that Iraqi officials had "cleared up" the site of the
Shula bombing "to disguise their own responsibility for what took place".

Conclusion: Coalition officials say both bombings are still under
investigation.


Executions

UK account: At a press conference on 27 March with the US president at
Camp David, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says that Iraq has executed two
British soldiers whose bodies were shown on Arabic television.

"If anyone needed any further evidence of the depravity of Saddam's
regime, this atrocity provides it," he says. "It is yet one more flagrant
breach of all the proper conventions of war."

Iraqi denial: Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf says
that Mr Blair has "lied to the public" about the soldiers. "We haven't
executed anyone."

Later reports:: The British prime minister's spokesman later said that
there was no "absolute evidence" that the UK servicemen had been executed.


Chemical weapons find

On 27 March, George W Bush says that US forces have destroyed a camp in
northern Iraq belonging to Ansar al-Islam. Washington's assertion that
there was a link between Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and the
Baghdad regime rest mainly on the alleged links between Ansar al-Islam and
al-Qaeda. US officials have consistently maintained that the discovery of
the poison ricin in London was linked to this camp. UK officials have
denied this.

US account: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers
says on 30 March: "We attacked and now have gone in on the ground into the
site where Ansar al-Islam and al-Qaeda had been working on poisons. We
think that's probably where the ricin found in London came from."

Other reports: In London on 31 March two newspapers, the Mirror and the
Sun report that the American finds at the Ansar al-Islam site offers proof
that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The Sun argues that this
justifies the war against Iraq.

Later US account: On 1 April US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks says
coalition troops are yet to find any banned weapons in Iraq. Donald
Rumsfeld insists Iraqi weapons of mass destruction will be found in areas
in and around Baghdad and Tikrit.


Capture of Iraqi general

British account: On 30 March British forces involved in clashes in Basra
say they have captured an Iraqi general. UK Group Captain Al Lockwood says
the general is being asked to co-operate with UK forces in the planning
operations against Iraqi resistance in Basra.

Other reports: Qatari television network al-Jazeera interviews Lieutenant
General Walid Hamid Tawfiq, an Iraqi commander in southern Iraq. He
insists that no general has been taken prisoner by the British.  UK
retraction: The UK Ministry of Defence retracts earlier claims on the
capture of a general. It is believed that a captured officer was mistaken
for a general.


Checkpoint deaths

Late on 31 March, US troops open fire on a civilian van that fails to stop
at a checkpoint. Seven Iraqi women and children are killed, according to
US officials.

US account: US officials say the driver of the car failed to stop after
warning shots were fired over the car and then at its engine. Soldiers
fired at the passenger cabin "as a last resort". US soldiers at
checkpoints were said to be jumpy after a suicide attack at a checkpoint
had killed four servicemen. Pentagon officials insist that the correct
procedures were followed, and that soldiers had acted in "the appropriate
way".

Other reports: William Branigin, a reporter with the Washington Post
embedded with the US Third Infantry, witnesses the shooting and has a
different account. He says that 10 people were killed, and no warning
shots were fired. He reports that after the shooting Captain Ronny
Johnson, the commander at the checkpoint, yelled at his platoon commander:
"You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning
shot soon enough!" US forces, according to William Branigin, offered the
survivors of the incident financial compensation.


Cluster bombs

Iraqi account: Officials in the Iraqi capital say that US forces have been
dropping cluster bombs on civilian areas in Iraq. First reports of the use
of cluster bombs in the war appear in the Western media on 3 April.  
Coalition denial: US and British officials deny the use of cluster
munitions. British military spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon said: "We are
not using cluster munitions, for obvious collateral damage reasons, in and
around Basra."

Later UK account: A military official in London tells BBC News Online: "We
have used them elsewhere." He said they were an effective weapon of
warfare, for example to target a convoy of military vehicles, but were
only used in the open far from built up areas. UK Defence Secretary Geoff
Hoon defends the use of cluster bombs in Iraq on 4 April, saying they are
legal and not using them would put British soldiers at greater risk.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/2929411.stm

Published: 2003/04/17 16:40:04

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  Carl Estabrook
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [MC-190]
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana IL 61801 USA
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