Friendly Fire?

Two employees of a Pentagon-funded television station were killed by U.S. troops in Iraq today. Al-Iraqiya correspondent Asaad Kadhim, driver Hussein Saleh and cameraman Bassem Kamel came under fire as they drove along the road to the central city of Samara. Kadhim and Saleh were killed, while Kamel was wounded. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 24 Iraqi and foreign journalists and media workers have been killed since the U.S. invasion, not counting the latest deaths. Al-Iraqiya and two Baghdad radio stations are run by the Iraq Media Network, on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority and under U.S. Defense Department contracts with the San Diego, California-based company Scientific Applications International Corporation.