US-led coalition prevents independent media from covering Camp Taji handover

The US-led military coalition purportedly formed to fight the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has prevented journalists working for a number of independent media outlets from covering the official handover of a military base north of the capital Baghdad to the Iraqi forces.

Muhammad al-Awad, a correspondent for Iraq's al-Ahad television network, reported that the US-led troops did not allow his team as well as those of local al-Nujaba satellite television channel and Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam television news network to enter Camp Taji, situated 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghdad, despite the fact that they had received invitations from the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) to cover the event on Sunday.

Awad denounced the restriction as an attack on freedom of expression and the right of media outlets to disseminate information.

“We do not know the reason for such a measure. We are on the Iraqi soil and Americans have no right to block the Iraqi media in this country,” he argued.

US hands over base to Iraqi troops amid calls for withdrawal

US troops and their allies withdraw from the Taji base north of Iraq

“The behavior of American forces in Camp Taji exposes the extent of their fear that media outlets may shed light on their crimes,” Awad highlighted.

Navid Behrouz, a correspondent for al-Alam television news network, also said that US forces separated his team and those of Iraqi al-Etejah, al-Nujaba and al-Ahad television channels from other media teams, kept them in the waiting hall of the base, and prevented them from carrying news of the handover ceremony.

Meanwhile, Major General Tahseen al-Khafaji, the spokesperson for the JOC, has censured the US-led coalition over preventing independent media from covering Camp Taji handover ceremony, describing the move as an “irresponsible behavior.”

“There is no convincing reason for not allowing al-Ahad TV channel to enter and cover the withdrawal of coalition forces from Camp Taji. Al-Ahad TV had earlier covered the withdrawal of coalition troops from seven bases,” Khafaji said, denouncing the measure as “irresponsible.”

“Such behavior is odd and unusual. Al-Ahad TV channel would have been barred from covering the withdrawal of coalition forces from seven other base, if the prevention had been due to an official order,” the senior Iraqi military official noted.

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Anti-US sentiments have been running high in Iraq since the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units, and their companions in a US assassination drone strike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3.

Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill two days later, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country.

The US responded to the move by threatening crippling sanctions against the Arab country.

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