Iraq

U.S. soldiers kill cameraman at site of attack

LONDON - A Reuters news agency cameraman was shot and killed by American soldiers Sunday while filming outside a Baghdad prison that was hit by a deadly mortar attack hours before.

Mazen Dana, 41, was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison when he was shot, Reuters said. A mortar attack there earlier killed six prisoners and wounded 60 others.

The videotape in Dana's camera showed two U.S. tanks coming toward him. Two shots were fired, apparently from the tanks, and Dana fell to the ground. He was taken away by a U.S. helicopter for treatment.

The Associated Press, quoting a U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported that Dana was shot by American soldiers who saw him from a distance and mistook him for an Iraqi guerrilla.

When the soldiers came closer, they realized Dana was a journalist, the official said.

An outspoken critic of the Israeli government's treatment of journalists, Dana, a Palestinian, was honored by the Committee to Protect Journalists with an International Press Freedom Award in November 2001 for his work covering conflict in his hometown of Hebron in the West Bank. He was shot at least three times in 2000, according to the group's Web site.

Dana's death brings to 17 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since the war started March 20.

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