Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: SINAN SALAHEDDIN
Date: 23 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_U.S. troops late Monday raided the offices of a television
station affiliated with a major Shiite party represented in Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki's government, the station's deputy editor said.
Haidar Kadhim said the troops arrived at al-Furat television complex in the
central Baghdad's Karadah neighborhood at about 9:30 p.m. (18:30 GMT) and
were still there when he spoke to The Associated Press 90 minutes later.
The troops disarmed the station's 40 guards, but allowed the management and
editorial teams to continue to work undisturbed. They did not search the
offices.
Al-Furat staff work out of five neighboring buildings and the American
troops only used force to gain entry into one of them, a one-story structure
housing the station's studios, according to Kadhim.
The station remained on the air, announcing news of the raid without comment
in its news crawl.
Kadhim did not know what prompted the raid on the station, which is
sponsored by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or
SCIRI, Iraq's largest Shiite party and a key partner in al-Maliki's
coalition.
SCIRI officials sent by the party's leader, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, arrived at
the station and were negotiating the departure of the troops, said Kadhim.
There was no word on the raid from the U.S. military, which customarily
announce the targets of security sweeps a day or two later, if at all.
U.S. and Iraqi forces are jointly involved in a two-month-old campaign to
crush violence in Baghdad, launching home-by-home sweeps to flush out
weapons, insurgents and members of sectarian death squads.
Byline: SINAN SALAHEDDIN
Date: 23 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_U.S. troops late Monday raided the offices of a television
station affiliated with a major Shiite party represented in Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki's government, the station's deputy editor said.
Haidar Kadhim said the troops arrived at al-Furat television complex in the
central Baghdad's Karadah neighborhood at about 9:30 p.m. (18:30 GMT) and
were still there when he spoke to The Associated Press 90 minutes later.
The troops disarmed the station's 40 guards, but allowed the management and
editorial teams to continue to work undisturbed. They did not search the
offices.
Al-Furat staff work out of five neighboring buildings and the American
troops only used force to gain entry into one of them, a one-story structure
housing the station's studios, according to Kadhim.
The station remained on the air, announcing news of the raid without comment
in its news crawl.
Kadhim did not know what prompted the raid on the station, which is
sponsored by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or
SCIRI, Iraq's largest Shiite party and a key partner in al-Maliki's
coalition.
SCIRI officials sent by the party's leader, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, arrived at
the station and were negotiating the departure of the troops, said Kadhim.
There was no word on the raid from the U.S. military, which customarily
announce the targets of security sweeps a day or two later, if at all.
U.S. and Iraqi forces are jointly involved in a two-month-old campaign to
crush violence in Baghdad, launching home-by-home sweeps to flush out
weapons, insurgents and members of sectarian death squads.