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May 14, 2003
San Luis Obispo Tribune
'It was a roller coaster ride'
Pismo reporter faced death on road to Tikrit
Ryan Huff
PISMO BEACH - A Pismo Beach man, covering the war in Iraq for CNN, is now safe after he was held captive Friday. Armed Iraqi forces believed he was an American spy.
Iraqi soldiers fired an AK-47 round at Kevin Sites' feet and tied him up for four hours as he negotiated his release through a translator. Sites and his three-man crew were harassed and stripped of their broadcast gear before they were let go outside Tikrit in northern Iraq. The Iraqis kicked two crew members in the head, but Sites was not injured.
"There were times we truly thought we were going to die," Sites said on CNN hours after his ordeal. "... But it was a roller coaster ride. There were times when they really said they were going to kill us and then the times they said they were going to set us free. It kept on going back and forth for about four hours. And that was the most frightening aspect of it -- the uncertainty of the whole thing."
Posted by Xeni Jardin at May 14, 2003 12:40 AM