US Troops 'Crazy' in Killing Reuters Cameraman: Guardian

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, August 19, 2003

US Troops 'Crazy' in Killing Reuters Cameraman: Guardian

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Journalists who were with a Reuters news cameraman shot dead by US troops while filming outside a Baghdad prison accused the soldiers of behaving in a "crazy" and negligent fashion, the British Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday.

It was reported that Mazen Dana, 43, who had worked for Reuters for more than 10 years, was killed on Sunday when soldiers in two tanks opened fire outside the US-run Abu Ghraib prison, which had earlier come under mortar attack.

The US army, which has launched an investigation, claimed its soldiers thought Dana's camera was a weapon, the paper said.

Yet colleagues who were with the award-winning cameraman when he was killed told a different story.

Journalists claimed the Americans had spotted Dana outside the jail half an hour before he was killed and must have realized he was not a guerrilla carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, the paper said.

Nael al-Shyoukhi, a Reuters soundman, was quoted as saying that the US soldiers "saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission."

"I don't think it was an accident. They are very tense. They are crazy," the paper also quoted Stephan Breitner of France 2 television as saying.

Dana's death, which brought to 17 the number of journalists or their assistants who have died in Iraq since the US-led war against the country began on March 20, has once again turned the spotlight on US soldiers and their shoot first, ask questions later tactics in Iraq, the paper said.

Numerous civilians have been killed by American troops at roadblocks, often without warning, the paper added.

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