Unedited Videotape Is Raw, Painful – and Devastating
Robert Fisk , The Independent
BAGHDAD, 28 March 2003 — Two British soldiers lie dead on a Basra
roadway, a small Iraqi girl — victim of a US/UK airstrike — is
brought to hospital with her intestines spilling our of her stomach,
a terribly wounded woman screams in agony as doctors try to take off
her black dress. An Iraqi general, surrounded by hundreds of his
armed troops, stands in central Basra and announces that Iraq’s
second city remains firmly in Iraqi hands. The unedited Al-Djazaira
videotape — filmed over the past 36 hours and newly arrived in
Baghdad — is raw, painful, devastating.
It is also proof that Basra — reportedly “captured’’ and “secured’’
by British troops last week — is indeed under the control of Saddam
Hussein’s forces. Despite claims by British officers that some form
of uprising has broken out in Basra, cars and buses continue to move
through the streets while Iraqis queue patiently for gas bottles as
they are unloaded from a government truck. A remarkable part of the
tape shows fireballs blooming over western Basra and the explosion of
incoming — and presumably British — shells. The short sequence of the
dead British soldiers for the public showing of which Tony Blair
expressed such horror yesterday — is little different from dozens of
similar clips of dead Iraqi soldiers shown on British television over
the past 12 years, pictures which never drew any expressions of
condemnation from the British prime minister. The two Britons, still
in uniform, are lying on a roadway, arms and legs apart, one of them
apparently hit in the head, the other shot in the chest and abdomen.
Another sequence from the same tape shows crowds of Basra civilians
and armed men in civilian clothes, kicking the soldiers’ British Army
Jeep — registration number HP5AA — and dancing on top of the vehicle.
Other men can be seen kicking the overturned Ministry of Defense
trailer, registration number 91KC98, which the Jeep was towing when
it was presumably ambushed.
Also to be observed on the unedited tape — which was driven up to
Baghdad on the open road from Basra — is a British pilotless drone
photo-reconnaissance aircraft, its red and blue roundels visible on
one wing, shot down and lying overturned on a roadway. Marked “ARMY’’
in capital letters, it carries the code sign ZJ300 on its tail and is
attached to a large cylindrical pod which probably contains the
plane’s camera. Far more terrible than the pictures of the dead
British soldiers, however, is the tape from Basra’s largest hospital
as victims of the US/UK bombardment are brought to the operating
rooms shrieking in pain.
A middle-aged man is carried into the hospital in pyjamas, soaked
head to foot in blood. A little girl of perhaps four is brought into
the operating room on a trolley, staring at a heap of her own
intestines protruding from the left side of her stomach. A
blue-uniformed doctor pours water over the little girl’s guts and
then gently applies a bandage before beginning surgery. A woman in
black with what appears to be a stomach wound cries out as doctors
try to strip her for surgery. In another sequence, a trail of blood
leads from the impact of an incoming — presumably British — shell.
Next to the crater is a pair of plastic slippers.
The Al-Djazaira tapes, most of which have never been seen — are the
first vivid proof that Basra remains totally outside British control.
Not only is one of the city’s main roads to Baghdad still open — this
is how the three main tapes reached the Iraqi capital — but Iraqi
general Khaled Hatem is interviewed in a Basra street, surrounded by
hundreds of his uniformed and armed troops, and telling Al-Djazaira’s
reporter that his men will “never’’ surrender to Iraq’s enemies.
Armed Baath Party militiamen can also be seen in the streets, where
traffic cops are directing lorries and buses near the city’s Sheraton
Hotel.
Mohamed Al-Abdullah, Al-Djazaira’s correspondent in Basra, must be
the bravest journalist in Iraq right now. In the sequence of three
tapes, he can be seen conducting interviews with families under fire
and calmly reporting the incoming British artillery bombardment. One
tape shows that the Sheraton Hotel on the banks of Shatt Al-Arab
River, has sustained shell damage. On the edge of the river — beside
one of the huge statues of Iraq’s 1980-88 war martyrs each pointing
an accusing finger across the waterway toward Iran — Basra residents
can be seen filling jerry cans from the sewage polluted river.
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24414
Robert Fisk , The Independent
BAGHDAD, 28 March 2003 — Two British soldiers lie dead on a Basra
roadway, a small Iraqi girl — victim of a US/UK airstrike — is
brought to hospital with her intestines spilling our of her stomach,
a terribly wounded woman screams in agony as doctors try to take off
her black dress. An Iraqi general, surrounded by hundreds of his
armed troops, stands in central Basra and announces that Iraq’s
second city remains firmly in Iraqi hands. The unedited Al-Djazaira
videotape — filmed over the past 36 hours and newly arrived in
Baghdad — is raw, painful, devastating.
It is also proof that Basra — reportedly “captured’’ and “secured’’
by British troops last week — is indeed under the control of Saddam
Hussein’s forces. Despite claims by British officers that some form
of uprising has broken out in Basra, cars and buses continue to move
through the streets while Iraqis queue patiently for gas bottles as
they are unloaded from a government truck. A remarkable part of the
tape shows fireballs blooming over western Basra and the explosion of
incoming — and presumably British — shells. The short sequence of the
dead British soldiers for the public showing of which Tony Blair
expressed such horror yesterday — is little different from dozens of
similar clips of dead Iraqi soldiers shown on British television over
the past 12 years, pictures which never drew any expressions of
condemnation from the British prime minister. The two Britons, still
in uniform, are lying on a roadway, arms and legs apart, one of them
apparently hit in the head, the other shot in the chest and abdomen.
Another sequence from the same tape shows crowds of Basra civilians
and armed men in civilian clothes, kicking the soldiers’ British Army
Jeep — registration number HP5AA — and dancing on top of the vehicle.
Other men can be seen kicking the overturned Ministry of Defense
trailer, registration number 91KC98, which the Jeep was towing when
it was presumably ambushed.
Also to be observed on the unedited tape — which was driven up to
Baghdad on the open road from Basra — is a British pilotless drone
photo-reconnaissance aircraft, its red and blue roundels visible on
one wing, shot down and lying overturned on a roadway. Marked “ARMY’’
in capital letters, it carries the code sign ZJ300 on its tail and is
attached to a large cylindrical pod which probably contains the
plane’s camera. Far more terrible than the pictures of the dead
British soldiers, however, is the tape from Basra’s largest hospital
as victims of the US/UK bombardment are brought to the operating
rooms shrieking in pain.
A middle-aged man is carried into the hospital in pyjamas, soaked
head to foot in blood. A little girl of perhaps four is brought into
the operating room on a trolley, staring at a heap of her own
intestines protruding from the left side of her stomach. A
blue-uniformed doctor pours water over the little girl’s guts and
then gently applies a bandage before beginning surgery. A woman in
black with what appears to be a stomach wound cries out as doctors
try to strip her for surgery. In another sequence, a trail of blood
leads from the impact of an incoming — presumably British — shell.
Next to the crater is a pair of plastic slippers.
The Al-Djazaira tapes, most of which have never been seen — are the
first vivid proof that Basra remains totally outside British control.
Not only is one of the city’s main roads to Baghdad still open — this
is how the three main tapes reached the Iraqi capital — but Iraqi
general Khaled Hatem is interviewed in a Basra street, surrounded by
hundreds of his uniformed and armed troops, and telling Al-Djazaira’s
reporter that his men will “never’’ surrender to Iraq’s enemies.
Armed Baath Party militiamen can also be seen in the streets, where
traffic cops are directing lorries and buses near the city’s Sheraton
Hotel.
Mohamed Al-Abdullah, Al-Djazaira’s correspondent in Basra, must be
the bravest journalist in Iraq right now. In the sequence of three
tapes, he can be seen conducting interviews with families under fire
and calmly reporting the incoming British artillery bombardment. One
tape shows that the Sheraton Hotel on the banks of Shatt Al-Arab
River, has sustained shell damage. On the edge of the river — beside
one of the huge statues of Iraq’s 1980-88 war martyrs each pointing
an accusing finger across the waterway toward Iran — Basra residents
can be seen filling jerry cans from the sewage polluted river.
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24414