© AP/Alexander Zemilanichenko RIA Novosti/Essam al-Sudani
Margaret Simonyan, head of Russian television channel RT • Iraqis protest in Basra, Iraq
Margaret Simonyan, head of Russian television channel RT • Iraqis protest in Basra, Iraq
Ruptly stringer cameraman Saaf Ghali has been killed in Iraq, according to Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.
The operator was killed after filming a demonstration in Iraq related to the ongoing US-Iran tensions, Teller Report stated. Margarita Simonyan wrote on her Telegram channel:
"In Iraq, unknown armed people killed our stringer cameraman Saaf Ghali. Saaf actively filmed materials for our Ruptly video agency in the region. We will do everything to help his family."Ghali was said to film around 30 pieces for Ruptly, a video agency that is a project of RT, while also working for a local TV station Al-Dijla.
It was earlier reported by France 24, citing a statement from the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), that Ghali was killed late on Friday in the country's southern city of Basra after filming anti-government protests. He and 37-year-old correspondent Ahmad Abdessamad, who both worked for Al-Dijla, were reportedly shot while sitting in a car near a police station in Basra when they were approached by unidentified men who opened fire on them.
Comment: That's the end of the matter as far as international diplomacy is concerned.
But what remains to be answered is how an air-defense system operator mistook a Boeing 737 for a cruise missile.
Unless it was fiddled with in some way, the Ukrainian Airlines jet's transponder should have told the operator of the TOR-1M system that the object he was seeing on his radar screen is a Boeing 737.
Additionally, the plane's appearance on his screen should have in no way surprised him - it was the TENTH flight out of Tehran's Khomeini Airport that night. Prior to Flight 752, the last flight movement there was the departure - from the same runway and in the same direction - of QR8408 at 05:39 local time.
Why then was the air-defense operator surprised by this flight?