KABUL, 6 March 2007 — Afghan journalists covering the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack and shooting in eastern Afghanistan said US troops deleted their photos and video and warned them not to publish or air any images of US troops or a car where three Afghans were shot to death.
Afghan witnesses and gunshot victims said US forces fired on civilians in cars and on foot along at least a 10-kilometer stretch of road in Nangarhar province following a suicide attack against the Marine convoy.
A freelance photographer working for The Associated Press and a cameraman working for AP Television News said a US soldier deleted their photos and video showing a four-wheel drive vehicle in which three people were shot to death about 100 meters from the suicide bombing. The AP plans to lodge a protest with the American military.
The photographer, Rahmat Gul, said witnesses at the scene told him the three had been shot to death by US forces fleeing the attack. The two AP freelancers arrived at the site about half an hour after the suicide bombing, Gul said.
“When I went near the four-wheel drive, I saw the Americans taking pictures of the same car, so I started taking pictures,” Gul said. “Two soldiers with a translator came and said, ‘Why are you taking pictures? You don’t have permission’.” It wasn’t clear why the accredited journalists would need permission to take photos of a civilian car on a public highway.
Gul said the US troops took his camera, deleted his photos and returned it to him. The journalists came across another American, showed their identification cards, and he agreed that they could take pictures.
A Western military official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to release the information said the troops were Marine Special Operations Forces, the Marine Corps component created in February 2006 of the US Special Operations Command.
“The same soldier who took my camera came again and deleted my photos,” Gul said. “The soldier was very angry ... I told him, ‘They gave us permission,’ but he didn’t listen.”
Gul’s new photos were also deleted, and the American, speaking through a translator, warned him that he did not want to see any AP photos published anywhere. The American also raised his fist in anger as if he was going to hit him, but he did not strike, Gul said.
Lt. Col. David Accetta, a US military spokesman, said he did not have any confirmed reports that coalition forces “have been involved in confiscating cameras or deleting images.” Khanwali Kamran, a reporter for the Afghan channel Ariana Television, was in a small group of journalists working alongside Gul.
Taqiullah Taqi, a reporter for Afghanistan’s largest television station, Tolo TV, said Americans were using abusive language. “According to the translator, they said, ‘Delete them, or we will delete you’,” Taqi said.
