January 15th 2007 News Round-Up
Please note we will not be posting any translations/summaries from Arabic tonight. I am headlining with a piece of good news “Spain orders U.S. soldier arrests for Couso death” - he won’t be the last American in Iraq who finds out that he can never leave America again without fear of arrest for killing civilians.
Erdla
Spain orders U.S. soldier arrests for Couso death
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain has issued an international arrest warrant for three U.S. soldiers after reopening a murder investigation into the killing of Spanish television cameraman Jose Couso in Iraq, court officials said on Tuesday.
Judge Santiago Pedraz also asked prosecutors to determine whether the soldiers’ assets in the United States could be frozen against any future compensation claims, officials said.
Couso, a cameraman for Spain’s Telecinco television station, was killed when a U.S. tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on April 8, 2003.
Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk was also killed and three other Reuters employees were seriously injured.
Spain’s Supreme Court reopened the Couso case in December after an earlier court ruled that Spain had no jurisdiction to try the soldiers, halting Pedraz’s first attempt to order their arrest.
The United States has acknowledged the tank fired at the Palestine Hotel but has cleared Sergeant Thomas Gibson, Captain Philip Wolford and Lieutenant-Colonel Philip De Camp of blame.
Source: Spain orders U.S. soldier arrests for Couso death | News One | Reuters.com
Aswat Al Iraq (English)
Blast near Baghdad university claims 35 casualties - Aswat al Iraq:
Blast near Baghdad university claims 35 casualties
By Adel Fakher
Baghdad, Jan 16, (VOI) – At least ten college students were killed and 25 others wounded on Tuesday afternoon when a car bomb was detonated near the second largest university campus in Baghdad, a police source said.
“A car bomb was detonated today afternoon near al- Mustansiriyah university in east of Baghdad, killing ten college students and wounding 25,” the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
The source added “the blast occurred at the rush hour as college students were leaving the university campus.”
Over 8,000 students daily attend colleges at al-Mustansiriyah university, a second largest in Baghdad.
Casualty toll in Mustansiriyah car bombing climbs to 23 dead, 58 wounded - Aswat al Iraq:
