Iraqi Police Shoot at Reporters as US tanks roll up to Shrine of Ali
/The bullet that whistled through the lobby
of the Sea Hotel in Najaf yesterday, embedding shards of glass into a
foreign reporter's cheek before lodging itself in an air-conditioning
unit, carried an unmistakeable message: "Get out." Journalists working
in Iraq have long lived with the danger of being targeted by insurgents
fighting US-led forces and their Iraqi allies. But in Najaf the roles
have been abruptly reversed. Now the Iraqi police threaten journalists,
and the insurgents welcome them. As US marines and Iraqi security
forces resumed their operation to evict insurgents from the Shrine of
Ali, the holiest place in Shia Islam, the Iraqi interim government
decided yesterday to treat the media as the enemy. The authoritarian
stance towards the press seems redolent of the days of Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi government has closed the offices of al-Jazeera, the most
important Arab satellite station, accusing it of inciting the
insurgents. [more 
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