Relatives of a Spanish cameramankilled in a US tank attack on a Baghdad hotel have asked Spain's high court to investigate and put three US soldiers on trial.
The document submitted to the high court by the familystated:"The facts related constitute from the perspective ofinternational law 'war crimes'."
The filing also called for the three U.S. soldiers to beprovisionally jailed.
Jose Couso, 37, a cameraman for Spain's Telecinco TVstation, was killed on April 8 when a US tank fired at a hotelserving as the main Baghdad base for international journalistscovering the war in Iraq.
Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, a 35-year-old Ukrainian,was killed in the same incident.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said earlier this monthhe thought the deaths were "an accident of war".
At a new conference, Pilar Hermoso, lawyer for the Cousofamily, said Spanish law and international treaties allowed forsuspected war criminals to be tried in Spain even though thealleged crimes were committed abroad.
A Spanish court has never tried a war crimes case andHermoso said extraditing US soldiers for trial would bedifficult.
Legal sources said whether the case was even taken up woulddepend on the investigating judge assigned to it, with crusadinginvestigating judge Baltasar Garzon - known for attempting totry former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet - and high profilejudge Guillermo Ruiz Polanco seen as most likely to take it up.
If the High Court does not try the three men, named in thefiling as Sergeant Gibson, his superior Captain Philip Wolfordand Lieutenant Colonel Philip de Camp, the family would appealto Spain's Supreme Court, Hermoso told the news conference.
Gibson's first name was not given.There was no immediate response on the suit from thePentagon.
Fear of US soldiers and other officials being prosecutedin politically motivated suits was Washington's reason forspurning the new International Criminal Court.
Reuters said a team including legal experts and seniorjournalists was carrying out its own internal probe intoProtsyuk's death. The investigation involved close scrutiny oftelevision footage and eyewitness accounts and cooperation withgroups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
"Reuters is currently engaging in its own internalinvestigation, which is not yet complete. We expect it to becompleted in the next few weeks," a Reuters spokeswoman said.
"The priority is to find out the facts. Until we have all ofthose facts we cannot determine the next steps we will take,"she added.
On Tuesday, the CPJ released a report on the Palestine Hotelshooting saying "the attack on the journalists, while notdeliberate, was avoidable".
The group called on the Pentagon to conduct a "thorough andpublic investigation" of the incident.