24 June 2005
Yasser Salihee
Shooting
Iraqi special correspondent for Knight Ridder, was shot to death in Baghdad.
The shot appears to have been fired by a U.S. military sniper, though there were Iraqi soldiers in the area who also may have been shooting at the time. Salihee, 30, had the day off and was driving alone near his home in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amariyah when a single bullet pierced his windshield and then his skull. He was shot as his car neared a joint patrol of American and Iraqi troops who had stopped to search a building for snipers.
American and Iraqi soldiers are frequently targeted by suicide car bombers. The U.S. Army is investigating the incident. U.S. Humvees blocked three of the entry points to the intersection that Salihee was approaching. The one he was driving toward was manned by Iraqi and American soldiers on foot. It's unclear how well Salihee could have seen those troops, and whether they were standing in the road and waving motorists away, or taking cover by the side of the road in case of sniper attack.
