Gunmen kill Iraqi cameraman in northern Iraq
Source: Reuters
(Adds statement from Committee to Protect Journalists) MOSUL, Iraq, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a television cameraman working for Associated Press Television News (APTN) in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, the U.S. news organisation and Iraqi police said. Aswan Lutfalla, 35, an Iraqi father of two, had replaced an APTN cameraman killed in an explosion in Mosul in April 2005, the head of APTN in Baghdad, Ahmed Sami, told Reuters. Police Brigadier Mohammed al-Wagar said Lutfalla had gone to an industrial estate in Mosul to have his car repaired when clashes erupted between gunmen and Iraqi police and soldiers. Sami said it appeared the cameraman was deliberately targeted by the gunmen when he went to film the shooting. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week 89 journalists and 37 media support workers had been killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, making it the deadliest conflict in the committee's 25-year history. A record 29 journalists have been killed in Iraq this year so far, it said. Over 80 percent of all media deaths in Iraq have been Iraqis working for local and international news outlets, the committee said in a statement on Tuesday. "This senseless murder once again demonstrates the ever present dangers facing news professionals in Iraq," said CPJ Middle East Program Coordinator Joel Campagna. "Iraqi authorities must do everything in their power to apprehend those responsible for the growing number deadly attacks on the press and stop the cycle of impunity," he said. (Additional reporting by Ziad al-Taie in Mosul)
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