Sabotage ... US troops can only watch after second oil pipe blast
By BEN O’DRISCOLL
A TV CAMERAMAN was shot dead by jittery US troops yesterday — capping 24 hours of mayhem in Iraq.
Dad-of-four
Mazen Dana, 43, of the respected Reuters news agency, was killed
outside a jail where a mortar attack had earlier left six prisoners
dead and 59 wounded.
Witnesses said the award-winning Palestinian journalist was shot by soldiers on a US tank.
His
last footage outside the Baghdad jail showed a tank approaching before
several shots rang out and his camera fell to the ground.
The veteran had survived being shot three times filming in his homeland.
Saboteurs
also blew up a vital oil export pipeline in northern Iraq, Baghdad was
without water after another blast, and a Danish peacekeeper was killed
trying to stop looters.
Last footage ... tank rolls towards Dana before troops shot him dead
Fires raged along a 600-mile pipeline carrying oil to Turkey after saboteurs proved they could strike at will by bombing it TWICE in 48 hours.
The
pipeline had to be closed just days after oil exports resumed. It is
costing Iraq about £5million a day, and US military chiefs say it will
take up to two weeks to fix the pipeline.
Bombers also blew a gaping hole in a Baghdad water main yesterday.
Witnesses said they saw two men on a motorbike leaving a bag of explosives and detonating it minutes later.
Kids
played happily in a makeshift swimming pool as water flooded an
underpass, but engineers had to cut off the entire city’s supply.
Shops ran out of bottled water as people stocked up, but Baghdad’s deputy mayor said water supplies would be restored in hours.
Award-winning ... Mazen Dana Picture: REUTERS
Danish Lance Corporal Preben Pedersen was killed after stopping a truck of Iraqis near Basra on Saturday.
Two Iraqis died in the shootout and six were arrested.
It was not known who carried out the mortar attack on the Baghdad jail but it became clear there is an organised enemy.
A group calling itself the Iraqi National Islamic Resistance Movement broadcast a message on Al-Jazeera TV vowing to “kick out the occupiers”.
