Yasser Khatab

New York, January 27, 2003—A television producer working for the U.S. cable news network CNN and his driver were killed in an ambush today on the outskirts of Baghdad, CNN has reported.

The network said that producer Duraid Isa Mohammed, who also acts as a translator, and driver Yasser Khatab died of multiple gunshot wounds on Tuesday afternoon after the two-car convoy they were traveling in came under fire by unidentified assailants on the outskirts of Baghdad. 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.

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.