An Iraqi photographer and driver working for Reuters in Iraq have been killed in Baghdad, the agency has said. Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, were killed in eastern Baghdad Thursday at a time when clashes had been taking place between US forces and militants in the area.
Noor-Eldeen was single. Chmagh was married and had four children. Four other Reuters staff — Taras Protsyuk and Mazen Dana, Dhia Najim and Waleed Khaled — have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.
The US military said it was looking into the reports but had no immediate statement.
A preliminary police report obtained by Reuters said Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh had been killed by a "random American bombardment" that killed nine other people. The report was issued by the al-Rashad police station, the closest station to the scene. Reuters obtained a photocopy of the report. It was based upon witness accounts of the incident and signed by a lieutenant-colonel, the head of the station, tha agency reported.
Noor-Eldeen had called a Reuters colleague to say he was taking photographs of a damaged building. Witnesses interviewed by Reuters in the al-Amin al-Thaniyah neighborhood said Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh, who also worked as a cameraman's assistant, were near the building around the time a US helicopter fired on a minivan.
"The aircraft began striking randomly and people were wounded. A Kia (minivan) arrived to take them away. They hit the Kia and killed ... the two journalists," a witness, Karim Shindakh, told Reuters. Shindakh and three other witnesses said US soldiers came and took Noor-Eldeen's camera equipment, which has not been recovered.
Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said he was "personally shocked and sadden by today’s news. The job our reporters do is a critical one – telling the world what is happening on the streets of Iraq on a daily basis. Reuters will continue to do all that it can to protect journalists who must work in dangerous and difficult conditions but still have a right to do their jobs. Today my thoughts, and the thoughts of all Reuters employees are with the families.”
According to the Paris-based press freedom advocacy group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), Iraq is the most dangerous country in the world for journalists to work. Close to 200 journalists and media staff have been killed in Iraq since the invasion, according to RSF. A further two are missing and 14 have been kidnapped.
Reuters staff killed in Iraq:
- April 8, 2003: Reuters Ukrainian cameraman Taras Protsyuk killed by a US tank shell fired at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
- August 17, 2003: Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, a Palestinian, shot dead by US troops as he films outside Abu Ghraib prison.
- November 1, 2004: Dhia Najim, an Iraqi freelance cameraman filming for Reuters, killed in Ramadi. His colleagues and family said they believed he had been shot by a US sniper. The US military said he died in a gunbattle between Marines and insurgents.
- August 28, 2005: Waleed Khaled, a Reuters Television soundman is shot and killed in the Hay al-Adil district of west Baghdad. Cameraman Haider Kadhem is wounded. An independent inquiry commissioned by Reuters concluded in April 2006 that the soldiers' shooting of Iraqi television soundman Khaled appeared "unlawful".
- July 12, 2007: Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh killed in eastern Baghdad at a time when clashes had been taking place between US forces and militants in the area.
