Baghdad: A correspondent with Abu Dhabi TV issued an SOS to humanitarian
organisations on April 8 to rescue a group of journalists who are "surrounded" by
warring forces in the satellite channel's Baghdad offices.
The correspondent, Shaker Hamed, issued the call for help on Abu Dhabi TV saying
that "25 journalists and technicians belonging to Abu Dhabi Television and Qatari
satellite television channel Al-Jazeera are surrounded in the offices of Abu Dhabi
TV in Baghdad.
"We are surrounded in a military area where there are no civilians, with the
exception of the Abu Dhabi TV team and a few people from Al-Jazeera," Hamed said,
calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene quickly to pull
us out of this zone where missiles and shells are striking in an unbelievable
way".
The correspondent also called for the help of the International Organisation of
Journalists, Reporters Sans Frontieres and the Arab Journalists' Union to attempt to
rescue them.
The offices are on a road along the banks of the Tigris River between the Mansur
Hotel and the Planning Ministry, not far from the Republican Palace compound where
fierce fighting raged between US and Iraqi troops early April 8.
