US army apologises for killing journalist

“I can’t give you details on the rules of engagement, but 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.”

Mazen Dana, a 41-year-old Palestinian who worked for the Reuters news agency, was filming outside Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison yesterday when was gunned down. He was the 17th journalist to be killed during the war in Iraq.

Described by Reuters as one of its best cameramen, Dana had won several awards for his coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

US military officials said the soldiers had believed his camera was a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Dana’s last pictures showed two US tanks approaching. The nearest appeared to be about 50 yards away when six shots rang out and the camera fell to the ground from his shoulder.

Dana was believed to have been killed by the first shot which penetrated his chest and left a huge exit wound in his back.

“He screamed one time, and he was putting his hand on his chest and fell down on the ground and start screaming,” said Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was working with Dana as a sound technician.

“I saw him bleeding. I looked I saw the American soldiers around us, and I screamed to the same soldier who shot him, ‘Why did you shoot him? We are TV. You see him with a camera, why did you shoot him?”’

Al-Shyoukhi said the situation had seemed normal before the military opened fire.

“I don’t understand why they start shooting at us. It was his last day in Baghdad, he was supposed to go to Amman, meet with his wife and children.”

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists called Mazen “a calm but determined witness who took constant risks in order to tell the world the news”, and called for a full investigation.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said it was “appalled and shocked” by the shooting.

Taras Protsyuk, another Reuters cameraman, was killed in Baghdad on April 8 when his hotel room was hit by a US tank shell.

“I am deeply saddened to report the death of another Reuters journalist in Iraq once again at the hands of US troops,” said Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer.

“He was one of our most experienced television cameramen and brought the world pictures from many of the most violent conflicts of the last decade.

“A particular memory I have of him is the moving remarks he made when he accepted the Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists for his outstanding bravery in upholding press freedom. This was for his work in Hebron where he was wounded and beaten many times.

“I know I speak for all of us in extending our sincerest sympathies and heartfelt gratitude to his widow Suzan and his four children.”

Elsewhere in Iraq, a suspicious fire continued to rage on a section of Iraq’s main northern oil export pipeline into Turkey, the US army said.

Accounts varied over whether the blaze was accidental or an act of sabotage, but it would take at least 10 days to repair the damaged pipeline, US spokeswoman Maj Jocelyn Aberle said.

Iraq has the world’s second-largest proven crude reserves, at 112 billion barrels, but its pipelines, pumping stations and oil reservoirs are dilapidated after more than a decade of neglect.

And in the north of Baghdad, many neighbourhoods remained without water today after a bomb blew an enormous hole in a water main.

Nearby, huge fires burned in warehouses in north-east Baghdad where a guard said 50 gunmen had charged past him, looting spare parts from buses and other state vehicles and setting fires piles of old tyres.

Mohammed Jabber said an American Army patrol passed the area about 30 minutes later but took no action.