Reporters on the Job

• BAGHDAD TRAFFIC: As life returns to normal, reporter Dan Murphy says, the traffic in Baghdad builds. Of course, blocked bridges as well as police and military checkpoints also make travel around the city difficult. But yesterday traffic was light after a US military convoy was bombed in Baghdad. No one was seriously injured. "It's not the preferred method of traffic abatement, but it did make getting around the city easier," notes Dan.

David Clark Scott
World editor

• GAZA AIRSTRIKE VIDEO: The Israeli military has released video footage shot from a pilotless drone aircraft of a missile strike in a Gaza Strip refugee camp on Monday night. The attack - which Palestinians say killed 7 civilian bystanders and injured scores of people - was the subject of a story in yesterday's Monitor on page 6: "Gaza tensions rise after airstrike." The story was written before the footage was made public.

In the footage, a missile strikes the car, which stops and then begins to roll backward. A minute later, a second missile hits the vehicle. Israeli officials told reporters that the images show that their forces did not fire the second missile into a crowd gathered around the vehicle, as Palestinian officials claimed.

Israeli media accounts yesterday said the street was deserted and referred to Palestinian "fabrications." The Monitor's Cameron Barr viewed the video and found it inconclusive. "The pictures show some people moving along streets and lanes toward the car during the time between the two strikes, which seems to account for some of the dead and injured," he says. "But the video also shows that the Israeli helicopter pilot did not fire either of the two missiles into a crowd of people."

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