Mohammed, a producer working for the U.S. cable news network CNN,
and his driver, Yasser Khatab, were killed in an ambush on the outskirts
of the capital, Baghdad, CNN reported.
The network said that Mohammed, who also worked as a translator, and
Khatab died of multiple gunshot wounds after unidentified assailants
fired on the two-car convoy the men were traveling in that afternoon.
Cameraman Scott McWhinnie, who was traveling in the second vehicle,
was grazed in the head by a bullet, CNN said, but the remaining members
of the convoy–two CNN journalists, a security adviser, and the second
driver–were unharmed. McWhinnie was treated at a nearby military base.
According to CNN, the vehicles were headed north toward Baghdad when
a rust-colored Opel approached from behind. A single gunman with an
AK-47, positioned through the sunroof, opened fire on one of the vehicles.
CNN’s vice president for international public relations, Nigel Pritchard,
told CPJ that both CNN cars were unmarked, and that the attackers
may not have been aware they were journalists.