American forces kill Reuters journalist

American forces killed a Reuters Television soundman and wounded a cameraman on Sunday in Baghdad, police said.

An Iraqi police report, read to Reuters by an Interior Ministry official, confirmed the two had been shot by American troops.

A United States military spokesman, Lt. Col. Steven A. Boylan, said the incident was being investigated, and an official statement indicated that the Americans were responding to an attack on an Iraqi police convoy when the journalists were shot, Xinhua reports.

Waleed Khaled, 35, and cameraman Haider Khadem were shot while driving to the scene of the clash in the western Baghdad district of Adil, said Alastair MacDonald, Reuters' chief correspondent in Baghdad.

"I heard shooting, looked up and saw an American sniper on the roof of the shopping center." the wounded cameraman, Haider Kadhem, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

"A team from Reuters news agency was on assignment to cover the killing of two policemen in Hay al-Adil; U.S. forces opened fire on the team from Reuters and killed Waleed Khaled, who was shot in the head, and wounded Haider Kadhem," an Interior Ministry official quoted the police incident report as saying.

The death brings to 66 the number of journalists and their aides killed in Iraq since the start of the invasion in 2003, said Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based news media rights group.