Gunmen killed Lutfallah, 35, an Iraqi cameraman for Associated Press Television News, as he covered clashes between insurgents and police in the northern city of Mosul. The Associated Press reported that Lutfallah was having his car repaired in the city’s eastern Al-Karama neighborhood when insurgents and police began fighting nearby. He rushed to cover the clash. Police Brig. Abdul-Karim Ahmed Khalaf said insurgents spotted him filming, approached him, and shot him to death, AP reported. Lutfallah had not reported any prior threats against him, the news agency added.
Lutfallah began his career at the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan-backed Kirkuk TV. He then worked for several other local television channels before joining APTN as a cameraman in 2005. Lutfallah is the second APTN cameraman to be killed under similar circumstances in Mosul. On April 23, 2005, cameraman Saleh Ibrahim was killed by gunfire near the city’s Al-Yarmouk Circle, the scene of an earlier explosion that he and his brother-in-law, AP photographer Mohamed Ibrahim, had gone to cover.