US has not been asked to help in probe of reporter’s killing

By JOSEPH KRAUSS
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — The State Department says neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority has formally requested U.S. assistance in the investigation of the killing of a Palestinian-American reporter in the occupied West Bank. An AP reconstruction lends support to eyewitnesses who say Shireen Abu Akleh was shot by Israeli forces. Israel says she was killed during a shootout with Palestinian militants, who may have fired the fatal shot. Israel and the PA each have potentially crucial evidence. The involvement of a third party could help overcome the severe distrust between them. But by Wednesday, two weeks after her death, there was no sign either was willing to cede control over its own investigation.