Special
report: Tension escalates in
Iraq
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- A CNN video clip
showing an Iraqi insurgent sniper killing an American soldier was drawing
criticism in the United State, as Republican lawmakers called for the ouster of
CNN reporters from U.S. troops in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times reported on
Saturday.
Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services
Committee, along with two other lawmakers representing California in the House,
wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, calling the footage
"nothing short of a terrorist snuff film," the report said.
The U.S. news network has become "the publicist for
an enemy propaganda film" by broadcasting the video obtained from an insurgent
group, Hunter was quoted as saying Friday in San Diego, California.
He called for the Pentagon to oust any CNN reporter
"embedded" with U.S. troops in Iraq, saying the average American Marine or
soldier would conclude that CNN is not on their side after seeing that film.
CNN said it broadcast the brief video to show the
threat that insurgent snipers posed to U.S. troops.
The footage was shown first on the network's
"Anderson Cooper 360" program, and then on several news shows. It remained on
its website Friday.
The White House was apparently disappointed with the
showing of the footage, as spokesman Tony Snow said the insurgents were hoping
to "break the will of the American people" by giving the video to CNN.
Snow reportedly said at his regular news briefing in
Washington that the video was misleading because it made it appear that
Americans were "sitting ducks" and that insurgents were winning the war.
The Pentagon had no comment on the video.
Related:
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after 3 marines killed
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U.S. soldiers secure the scene of a car
bomb attack in Baghdad Oct. 21, 2006. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo Gallery
>>> | BAGHDAD,
Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military announced here Saturday three deaths of
its marines in Iraq's restive western province of Anbar.
The three U.S. marines were killed during "enemy
action" in Iraq's Anbar province on Saturday, said the military, without giving
further details for the incident. Full story>>
Bush: U.S. to make "every necessary
change" to stabilize Iraq
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George
W. Bush said on Saturday that he would make "every necessary change" to deal
with the surge of violence and stabilize the situation in Iraq.
In his weekly radio address, Bush acknowledged that a
drive to stabilize Baghdad had not gone as planned. But he said he would not
abandon his goal of building a self-sustaining Iraqi government. Full story>>
Bush says rising Iraq violence aimed
at swaying U.S. elections
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- A little more than
two weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, President George W. Bush said
on Friday the escalating violence in Iraq was partly aimed at influencing the
midterm elections.
At a speech to a National Republican Senatorial
Committee reception, the president gave two reasons as to why violence was
rising in the war-ravaged Iraq. Full story>>
Iraq's Sunni and Shiite clerics agree
to halt sectarian bloodshed
RIYADH, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Shiite and Sunni
clerics on Friday met in Saudi Arabia's Mecca and agreed to halt the growing
sectarian bloodletting in their war-torn country, said reports reaching here
from the Islam's holiest city.
The two rival sides reached the agreement in a signed
document, or final communique under which "spilling Muslim blood is forbidden",
at the end of their two-day Mecca meeting organized by the 57-member
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Full story>>
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