BAGHDAD – The U.S. military arrested an Iraqi cameraman on Thursday, his family and employer said, two days after the detention of a freelance photographer working for Reuters news agency.
American troops took Omar Hashem, who works for the Baghdad local television channel, and his father and two brothers from their home in the capital's Adhamiya district early on Thursday.
The U.S. military confirmed they had detained a journalist, but did not mention Hashem by name.
'Omar Hashem, his two brothers and father were arrested by American forces. Our cameraman has a coalition media pass and has worked with them before. I don't know why they arrested him now,' said Riyad Arif, head of the Baghdad channel office.
Reuters television footage showed Hashem's home in disarray after his family said troops searched the property.
'Early in the morning I heard voices telling me to leave the house, to get out. We were trying to put clothes on when they broke down the door,' said a tearful Um Omar, the cameraman's mother.
The U.S. military said they had detained a journalist in operations on Thursday targeting al Qaeda's bombing cells. A suspected car-bombing cell leader and three alleged associates were among 15 people arrested in the operation.
'A journalist was detained last night because he was assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces. He was seized along with others suspected of a terrorist bombing network,' the military said in a statement.
Hashem's detention comes just two days after the arrest of Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, an Iraqi who has supplied photos and video to Reuters on a freelance basis for about two years. The American military said he was evaluated as a 'security threat'.
The international news agency is seeking additional information.
Iraqi and international media rights groups have criticised the military's treatment of suspicions apparently arising from reporters' legitimate activities covering acts of violence.
'All the Iraqi journalists detained by the U.S. military were later released when it was clear there was no basis for their arrest,' said Ziad al-Ajli, head of the Iraqi press rights group the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory.
'No one pays a price except for the journalist,' he added.
6:18 a.m. September 4, 2008
Last month, the U.S. military freed a cameraman working for Reuters after holding him for three weeks without charges, and another cameraman working for the Associated Press who had been held for three months also without charge.
In April the military freed Bilal Hussein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Iraqi AP photographer, after he was held without charge for two years.
The American military says the U.N. mandate authorising its presence in Iraq allows it to hold anyone it deems a threat indefinitely. That mandate expires on Dec. 31.
U.S. forces are now holding about 21,000 Iraqis without charge.
(Writing by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Missy Ryan and Mary Gabriel)
