イラク戦争

Other allegations circulating in Iraq suggest that US soldiers have deliberately shot at Arab journalists and demanded the removal of an al-Jazeera reporting team from Falluja as a condition for a recent cease-fire in the town.

A spokesman for the coalition said he was unaware of Hassan's case but that the coalition and the US military's relationship with al-Jazeera was the same as with any other media organisation.

"It's entirely open. There is no question that they go and target journalists or cameramen or whatever," he said.

All of the 14 journalists and media employees to die in Iraq this year have been Iraqi or Arabs working for Middle Eastern or western media companies.

The latest journalist to die, Asaad Kadhim, and his driver Hussein Saleh worked for al-Iraqiya, the TV station set up by the coalition to help promote press freedom in the country.

Mr Kadhim and Mr Saleh were shot on Monday by American soldiers as they drove away from an interview with Iraqi police. Jassem Kamel, an al-Iraqiya cameraman who was wounded in the shooting, claimed a US soldier punched him in the face before he was given first aid.

The incident follows the shooting of two journalists from al-Arabiya by US soldiers at a checkpoint in Baghdad on March 18.

A Ukrainian cameraman working for Reuters and a cameraman for the Telecinco TV station, Spaniard Jose Couso, were killed in April last year when a US tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.

A Kurdish translator working for the BBC was also killed in April last year when a US aircraft bombed a convoy of US special forces and Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq.