Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish judge issued arrest warrants for three U.S. soldiers on Thursday in connection with the death of a Spanish TV cameraman in Iraq in 2003, reopening a long-running legal battle, according to a copy of the court order viewed by CNN.
The judge, National Court Investigating Magistrate Santiago Pedraz, indicted the three U.S. soldiers in April 2007, alleging they were linked to U.S. tank fire directed against the Palestine Hotel in 2003, where Spanish cameraman Jose Couso was videotaping the U.S. assault on Baghdad. Couso died from his wounds shortly afterward.
But in 2008, other National Court judges closed the case, citing lack of evidence. The cameraman's family appealed to Spain's Supreme Court, which recently ruled the case could proceed after all.
That led to Pedraz issuing the arrest warrants for the three soldiers Thursday. The three, identified as Philip de Camp, Phillip Wolford and Thomas Gibson, were assigned to the U.S. 3rd Infantry, based in Fort Stewart, Georgia.
In addition to Couso, the tank fire on April 8, 2003, in Baghdad also killed a Reuters cameraman, Ukrainian-born Taras Protsyuk.
Couso's family and some journalists have blamed the U.S. military, saying they should have known the Palestine Hotel, a tall structure in Baghdad, was a base for journalists, not combatants.
CNN
