Shawn Gibson
| José Couso | |
|---|---|
| Born |
José Couso Permuy 5 October 1965 Ferrol, Spain |
| Died | 8 April 2003 (aged 37) Baghdad, Iraq |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Alma mater | Complutense University of Madrid |
| Occupation | Cameraman |
| Known for | Cameraman killed by US Military |
José Couso Permuy (5 October 1965 – 8 April 2003) was a Spanish cameraman who was one of the April 8, 2003 journalist deaths by U.S. fire after a U.S. tank fired at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq during the 2003 Iraq invasion.
José Couso was born in Ferrol in 1965 to a family of military tradition. He graduated in Sciences of Information and Sciences of Image at the Complutense University of Madrid. He worked on assignments for several organizations, including EFE and Canal Plus, and was a cameraman for the Telecinco television network for 8 years, covering news of importance such as the kidnapping of his coworker Jon Sistiaga in Macedonia, the 1998 Baghdad bombings, the Kosovo War in 1999, various reports from the Hespérides a la Antártida ship in 2001, a report from the French caves of Lascaux, the incident on Isla Perejil during the same year, and the Prestige oil spill.
José Couso was married and had two children.
Couso went to Iraq, together with several coworkers from Telecinco, right before the 2003 invasion. Of those, only 2 stayed in Baghdad: Jon Sistiaga as a journalist and José Couso as camera operator. The other members of the team went back to Spain a few days before the bombings began.
On 8 April 2003, José Couso was at the Palestine Hotel, where many foreign reporters were staying. At that time, a company of the 3rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army was fighting on the other side of the river Tigris, where it was fired on by mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. According to the subsequent report issued by CENTCOM, enemy fire was aimed by an observer located on the same side of the Tigris as the Palestine Hotel. After looking for the alleged observer, an M1 Abrams tank fired its 120mm Rheinmetall L44 cannon at the hotel. The round hit the 15th floor, where the Reuters team was staying, causing the immediate death of the Ukrainian journalist Taras Protsyuk. At the time, José Couso was filming on the 14th floor and was seriously injured. Couso was transported to a Baghdad hospital, where he died during an operation.
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