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| Afghanistan |
| U.S. fire scatters crowd after Afghan bomb: witness |
| 2007-09-28 |
| Yeah, "witness"... By Noor Mohammad Sherzai Now remember that. It's important. BATI KOT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At least one U.S. soldier opened fire to scatter a crowd of civilians and police on Thursday after failed suicide bomb attacks on a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military and witnesses said. A car bomb targeting a U.S. convoy in the village of Bati Kot, 15 km (9 miles) east of Jalalabad, killed the driver, two passengers and a nearby civilian, but none of the soldiers was hurt, the U.S. military said in a statement. Hey, wanna take a ride? You'll get to meet 72...wait, there's two of you, 36 virgins. Afghan police securing the site in eastern Afghanistan were then attacked by an insurgent dressed in police uniform. He was killed by the police and coalition troops before he could detonate his suicide vest, the statement said. To add to the confusion, a fire brigade vehicle speeding to the scene rammed into the U.S. and Afghan vehicles."I saw the fire brigade vehicle rushing to the area at top speed. Somehow its brakes failed and hit one police vehicle and coalition vehicles, then the Americans started firing," said Reuters correspondent Noor Mohammad Sherzai. See. I said it was important. Right place, right time. Ya just can't teach those reporter instincts, can ya, Scoop... A spokesman for U.S.-led coalition forces said only one soldier had opened fire. "A U.S. servicemen fired two shots and those shots were away from the crowd and not directed toward the crowd," said Major Joe Klopple. The shots were fired to disperse the crowd out of concern for their safety because of what was thought to be another approaching suicide bomber, the U.S. statement said. Sherzai and other reporters at the scene said many shots were fired and Afghan police were among those fleeing the scene."I was running away as fast as I could, but some of the police overtook me," Sherzai said. The police, he said, "were very angry because the Americans were shooting and wanted to shoot back but others stopped them." Yeah, but who ya gonna believe, the US Army or Scoops Sherzai? "A bullet hit the ground between my legs while I was running," said Takiullah Taki, a cameraman for private Afghan channel Tolo TV. "Some Afghan national police wanted to shoot back, but others said that would make the situation deteriorate further so they did not." So how many civilians were hit in this "massacre"? It sounds worse then Jenin, for crissakes... Four Afghan investigators were injured in the vehicle accident and taken to hospital, the military said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. So nobody hit, nobody dead but the boomers? I'll bet that pissed you off, Scoops. Afghans staged angry protests in Jalalabad in March after U.S. Marines killed at least 10 civilians there following a suicide bomb attack. Which has nothing to do with this story, but Scoops will toss it in. We'll call it "local color"... Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said on Thursday police had captured Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf. But Yousuf called a Reuters reporter and denied he had been detained."I'm here in this room. I'm free," he said. Probably's got him on speed dial... |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #2 If you Google this guy, you get a page or two of bloggers and about five pages of article references. Oddly, his name does not seem to come up before that. Seems to have made a big splash. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-09-28 16:28 |
| #1 It seems Mr. Sherzai got a second article and a second creative witness quote out of the incident. It seems Mr. Sherzai is using the academic approach in reporting , in order to maximize publications from a single experiment: preliminary report, early results, final results, survey including own results. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-09-28 16:10 |