Accidental Bombing of Aziziyah, Iraq

By John Burnett

Published April 24, 2003 at 11:00 PM CDT

One of the few major encounters with the Iraqi Republican Guard the U.S. Marine's 1st Division encountered during its drive to Baghdad was at the small Tigris river town of Aziziyah. NPR's John Burnett was with the 1st Division as it moved on to Baghdad. He retraces his steps to see what the battle was all about. He discovers what appears to have been an accidental U.S. bombing of a village near Aziziyah in which 31 civilians were killed as they slept.

John Burnett

As NPR's Southwest correspondent based in Austin, Texas, John Burnett covers immigration, border affairs, Texas news and other national assignments. In 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, he won national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for continuing coverage of the immigration beat. In 2020, Burnett along with other NPR journalists, were finalists for a duPont-Columbia Award for their coverage of the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico program. In December 2018, Burnett was invited to participate in a workshop on Refugees, Immigration and Border Security in Western Europe, sponsored by the RIAS Berlin Commission.

See stories by John Burnett