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Dana
during a demonstration calling for the end of the killing of
journalists by the Israeli army in the West Bank town of Hebron.
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WASHINGTON,
August 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In yet another
crime against journalists in occupied Iraq, U.S. troops shot dead an
award-winning Reuters cameraman while he was filming on Sunday, August
17, near a U.S.-run prison in Baghdad.
Mazen
Dana, a 43-year-old father of four, was killed on Sunday while working
outside the notorious Abu Gharib prison, in what witnesses said was a
shooting by U.S. soldiers, according to Reuters
sources in Iraq.
Dana's
last pictures show a U.S. tank driving toward him outside the prison
walls. Several shots ring out from the tank, and Dana's camera falls
to the ground, Reuters reported.
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’
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A
U.S. army tank in Baghdad in this frame grab taken from footage
shot by Dana. A moment later, shots rang out and Dana hit the
ground, killed by shots from a U.S. tank
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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.
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