Two Iraqis, working for the CNN were killed, and a third was lightly injured Tuesday afternoon when the cars they were traveling in came under fire.
The employees were returning to Baghdad in a two-car convoy from an assignment in the southern city of Hillah, when they were ambushed on the outskirts of Baghdad, the American network reported.
Translator and producer Duraid Isa Mohammed, 27, and driver Yasser Khatab, 25, died from multiple gunshot wounds. Cameraman Scott McWhinnie, traveling in another vehicle, was grazed in the head by a bullet.
The CNN vehicles were headed north toward Baghdad when a rust-colored Opel approached from behind. A single gunman with an AK-47, standing through the sunroof, opened fire on one of the vehicles.
That lead CNN vehicle, hit at least five times, managed to escape from the gunman as the CNN security adviser returned fire.
The Opel spun around on the median as the second CNN car, with Mohammed and Khatab inside, drove off the highway, according to CNN crewmembers.
The CNN crew in McWhinnie's vehicle drove to an Iraqi police station and asked officers to go back to the scene to help Mohammed and Khatab.
The crew then drove to a forward operations base of the U.S. 82nd Airborne, where McWhinnie was treated, and the U.S. military sent a team to find the missing CNN employees.
Iraqi police found the car with the bodies of Mohammed and Khatab.
Meanwhile, US occupation forces discovered a car bomb Tuesday in a parking lot near the offices of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, the U.S. command said, according to the AP.
The vehicle rigged with explosives was found at Gate 2, a high-security checkpoint manned by U.S. troops, the command added. American forces sealed off the area as bomb disposal experts tried to defuse it.
The gate is located near the offices of the Governing Council and a short distance from a convention center where the U.S.-led occupation holds briefings for national and international media. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
