The morning was slow, but the 2 pm briefing produced a whole load more Iraqis killed by US troops for alleged infractions.
Seven were killed in three separate incidents in the Fourth Infantry Division area. After the briefing we rushed out to find a spot where our Thuraya satellite phones could get a signal and called our information through to our colleagues in Baghdad, who then wrote up the story. For AFP, the copy goes from Baghdad to Nicosia in Cyprus, where we have our Middle East headquarters. There it gets an edit and is sent out to clients. For a story such as US soldiers getting killed, or a major resistance figure being captured, an ‘urgent’ consisting of only one paragraph is sent out first, with the word URGENT preceding the headline. If there are no hitches it should take no more than a few minutes before the news I phone in hits the wire. Then what we call leads are sent out, adding a couple more paragraphs each time to provide more details and reactions and background, until a full-length news story is reached.