US correspondent expelled from Iraq by US forces

WASHINGTON (AFP) Mar 29, 2003
A US journalist with the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor was expelled from Iraq by US forces who accused him of endangering military unit by being too specific in a report, the Pentagon and the newspaper said Friday.

Phil Smucker, a US national based in Cairo, was reporting in southern Iraq for the Monitor, and the Daily Telegraph of London. He was criticized for an interview given to CNN television.

The Monitor said Smucker "was escorted by the US Marines from the front lines of the war in Iraq Thursday. He is being taken to Kuwait, the Pentagon says, because of information Smucker reported in a broadcast appearance with CNN early Wednesday."

"The Marines commander thought he was jeopardizing the safety of his unit," said Major Tim Blair.

He was one of some 600 journalists moving with US and British military units.

WAR.WIRE