US troops admit shooting journalist dead

THE US army yesterday admitted shooting dead an award-winning journalist in Iraq after soldiers mistook his camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Mazen Dana, a 41-year-old Palestinian who worked for the Reuters news agency, was filming outside Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison on Sunday when was gunned down. He was the 17th journalist to be killed during the war in Iraq. The tape in his camera showed two US tanks approaching him before shots rang out and Mr Dana fell to the ground. His body was taken away by a US helicopter.

“One of the soldiers told us they thought Mazen carrying a rocket propelled grenade,” said Mr Dana’s driver Munzer Abbas. “There were many journalists around. They knew we were journalists. This was not an accident,” he said.

A US military official said the soldiers saw Mr Dana from a distance and mistook him for an Iraqi guerrilla, so they opened fire.

US spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Guy Shields said he was sorry, but US forces did not have to fire warning shots if they felt at risk.

“The enemy is not in formations, they are not wearing uniforms,” he said. “During war time, firing a warning shot is not a necessity. There is no time for a warning shot if there is potential for an ambush.”

Stephen Jukes, Reuters’ global head of news, said: “Mazen was one of Reuters’ finest cameramen and we are devastated by his loss.”

Moments before being shot dead, Mr Dana told a colleague that working close to the US military was not a problem “as long as they don’t shoot me”.

A French colleague said Mr Dana had been outside the prison with a group of other journalists for some time when he was killed.

“We were all there, for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don’t think it was accident. They are very tense. They are crazy,” said Stephan Breitner of France 2 television.

An outspoken critic of the Israeli government’s treatment of journalists, Mr Dana was honoured by the Committee to Protect Journalists with an Press Freedom Award in November 2001 for covering conflict in his home town of Hebron in the West Bank. He was married and had four children.