U.S. Troops Admit Killing Reuters Cameraman in Iraq

The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that U.S. forces near Baghdad shot and killed an individual later identified as a Reuters reporter, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ken McClellan said he did not have further details on the incident, but suggested it was a case of "mistaken identity".

"The incident is under investigation. It was not apparent in the beginning that it was a reporter," McClellan said.

"I don’t know what the circumstances were. Obviously this coalition is not in the business of targeting reporters … if he was shot there was something mistaking his identity."

McClellan said the injured reporter was pronounced dead on arrival at a U.S. military hospital.

Journalists had gone to the prison after the U.S. military said a mortar bomb attack there a day before had killed six Iraqis and wounded 59 others.

Recounting the moments before the shooting, Reuters soundman Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was working with Dana, said he had asked a U.S. soldier near the prison if they could speak to an officer and was told they could not.

"They saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission," Shyoukhi said. The incident happened in the afternoon in daylight.

‘We Were Noted And Seen Clearly’
The soldier agreed to their request to film an overview of the prison from a bridge nearby.

"After we filmed we went into the car and prepared to go when a convoy led by a tank arrived and Mazen stepped out of the car to film. I followed him and Mazen walked three to four meters (yards). We were noted and seen clearly," Shyoukhi said.

"A soldier on the tank shot at us. I lay on the ground. I heard Mazen and I saw him scream and touching his chest.

"I cried at the soldier, telling him you killed a journalist. They shouted at me and asked me to step back and I said ‘I will step back, but please help, please help and stop the bleed’.

"They tried to help him but Mazen bled heavily. Mazen took a last breath and died before my eyes."

Dana’s death brings to 17 the number of journalists or their assistants who have died in Iraq since war began on March 20. Two others have been missing since the first days of the war.

The United States came under fire Wednesday, August 13, from media watchdogs and families of reporters killed by U.S. soldiers in an unjustified attack on a reporter hotel in down town Baghdad shortly after the Iraqi capital fell to the American occupation forces.

A U.S. military inquiry has exonerated an American tank crew for firing on a Baghdad hotel housing journalists which killed an Ukrainian cameraman for Reuters television, 35-year-old Taras Protsyuk, and a Spaniard working for the Spanish television network Telecinco, 37-year-old Jose Couso, and wounded three other Reuters journalists.

Also on the same day, U.S. missiles hit the Baghdad offices of Al-Jazeera television killing reporter Tareq Ayub and wounding Zuheir al-Iraqi tin what the Qatar-based Arabic news network charged was a deliberate strike.

"Mazen was one of Reuters’ finest cameramen. We are devastated by his loss," said Stephen Jukes, Reuters’ head of global news.

"He was a brave and award-winning journalist, who had worked in many of the world’s hot spots."

"He was committed to covering the stories wherever they were and was an inspiration to friends and colleagues at Reuters and throughout the industry," Jukes continued.

"Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his family," he added.

Dana had worked for Reuters for more than 10 years, notably in the West Bank where he was originally from.

Paul Holmes, former Reuters bureau chief in Jerusalem, recalled a towering, chain-smoking bear of a man with a ruddy complexion and expansive heart.

"The amazing thing about him was he was like the king of Hebron. Every journalist in the city looked up to him and any journalist who covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will know and love Mazen," he said.

Reuters Chief Executive Tom Glocer said he hoped there would be "the fullest and most comprehensive investigation into this terrible tragedy."

Married with four young children, Dana was one of the company’s most experienced conflict journalists and had worked in Baghdad before, shortly after U.S. troops entered the city.

He was awarded an International Press Freedom Award in 2001 by the Committee to Protect Journalists for his work in Hebron where he was wounded and beaten many times.