US troops shoot journalist dead

US troops have killed an experienced journalist in Iraq after mistaking his television camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Mazen Dana, 43, an award winning Palestinian cameraman working for Reuters news agency, was shot dead at Abu Graib prison, west of Baghdad, yesterday afternoon.

He was described by Reuters as one of its finest cameramen. Dana’s last images showed a US tank driving towards him. Two shots were fired and the camera
dropped to the ground. He was taken to a US military hospital but pronounced dead on arrival.

Nineteen journalists or their assistants have now died or gone missing in Iraq since the conflict began.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ken McClellan said it was not obvious Dana was a reporter. He said: “If he was shot there was something
mistaking his identity.”

But Dana’s sound engineer, Nael al-Shyoukhi, said they had spoken to a US soldier shortly before the shooting. He said: “They saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission.”

Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer said he hoped there would be “the fullest and most comprehensive investigation into this terrible tragedy”.