Colonel Apologizes for Journalists’ Deaths, Defends Actions

The Army colonel who ordered his tanks to fire on the Palestine Hotel, killing two journalists, apologized Thursday for the deaths but said he had no choice because his unit was under attack by Iraqis operating there.

“I’m sorry to say it, but I’m the guy who killed the journalists,” said Lt. Col. Philip deCamp, whose unit has taken control of the presidential palace compound across the Tigris River from the hotel. “I’m really sorry, and I feel badly for their families, but I had no choice. My soldiers’ lives were in danger.”

DeCamp said Iraqi fighters in bunkers at the base of the hotel Tuesday had fired AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades at his tank unit. The Americans returned fire with 120-millimeter tank rounds, he said.

Outside the palace gates, DeCamp encountered Adrien Jaulmes, a French journalist staying at the Palestine.

“I’m very sorry about that, but I think you know what was happening in those bunkers at the base of the hotel,” DeCamp said.

Jaulmes nodded. “Yes, yes,” he said.

Pressured by DeCamp, the reporter acknowledged that the U.S. had, in the colonel’s words, “done the right thing” in Baghdad.

Then Jaulmes had a question of his own: What would the colonel like to say to French readers?

DeCamp brightened. “Hey, I love the French,” he said. “I’m French. They were on the wrong side of this one, but we’ll stick with them because they’re our allies.”

--David Zucchino