BAGHDAD, 14 July 2007 — An Iraqi reporter working for the New York Times was shot dead on his way to work in Baghdad yesterday, the newspaper said. Khalid Hassan, 23, died a day after a photographer and driver working for Reuters were killed in the city in what witnesses said was a US helicopter attack but which the military described as a firefight with insurgents.
Hassan was shot dead in the southern Saidiya district of the capital, the Times said in a statement. The circumstances of the attack were unclear, it said.
US forces battled Iraqi police and gunmen yesterday, killing six policemen, after an American raid captured an Iraqi police lieutenant accused of leading a cell of Shiite militiamen, the military said. Seven gunmen also died in the fight.
US and Iraqi authorities have arrested members of the police forces in the past for militia links, but yesterday’s violence was a rare open street battle between American troops and policemen.
