BAGHDAD: The Iraq conflict may have closed a while ago but the journalist community continues to take casualties. The latest one is a Reuters camera man Mazen Dana. He was shot dead yesterday morning while filming near a US run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.
A Reuters report states that the 43 year old man was shot by soldiers on an American tank as he filmed outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad. While accepting the mistake, the US military has stated that the troops were under the impression that the camera was a rocket propelled grenade launcher.
Dana's death brings to 17 the number of journalists or their assistants who have died in Iraq since March. Two others have been missing since the first days of the war.
He leaves behind four young children. Dana was awarded an International Press Freedom Award a couple of years ago by the Committee to Protect Journalists for his work in Hebron where he was wounded and beaten many times, states the report.