MADRID — A Spanish judge Thursday ordered the arrest of three U.S. soldiers on charges of unlawfully killing Spanish cameraman Jose Couso during the Iraq war. Couso was killed in April 2003 when a U.S. tank fired at a Baghdad hotel where journalists were staying.
National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz accused Lt. Col. Philip de Camp, Capt. Philip Wolford and Sgt. Thomas Gibson of homicide and of a crime against the international community. The three are from the 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Ga.
The case has already been shelved before. Pedraz said he reopened it in the hope that President Barack Obama’s administration would be more willing to cooperate and extradite the three soldiers.
Washington argued that the soldiers fired at the hotel in self-defense, believing a sniper was targeting them.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
