Gunmen kill Iraqi cameraman in northern Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq, Dec 12 (Reuters) Gunmen today shot dead a television cameraman working for Associated Press Television News (APTN) in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the US news organisation and Iraqi police said.

Aswan Lutfalla, a father of two, had replaced an APTN cameraman killed in the area a year ago, the head of APTN in Baghdad, Ahmed Sami, told Reuters.

He said Lutfalla had gone to an industrial estate in Mosul to have his car repaired when clashes erupted between rival gunmen. It appeared that he was deliberately targeted when he went to film the shooting, Sami said.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said last week that 89 journalists and 37 media support workers had been killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, making it the deadliest conflict in the committee's 25-year history.

A record 29 journalists have been killed in Iraq this year, the committee said.

REUTERS SHB VV1701