BAGHDAD (AFP) — American forces in Baghdad said on Friday they are holding an Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters news agency, and a media rights group said he has been held for nearly a week without charge.
Ali Al-Mashhadani was arrested last Saturday by US troops at the Iraqi parliament press centre in Baghdad's heavily fortified government and diplomatic Green Zone compound, the news agency said.
It said Mashhadani also works freelance for the BBC and US-based National Public Radio, and urged the American military to free him immediately or produce evidence that would justify his continuing detention.
A spokesman for the US military confirmed to AFP that Mashhadani was in custody.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the cameraman "must be freed at once. It is unacceptable that US troops arrest a journalist and hold him on security grounds."
The group cited the US military as saying Mashhadani was held because "he has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces."
Mashhadani has been detained by American forces before. He was held between August 2005 and January 2006 after footage and stills of Sunni insurgent activity in the western province of Anbar was found in a search of his cameras.
Later in 2006 he was held for another two weeks. Each time no charge has been brought against him, Reporters Without Borders said.
Mashhadani is being held at Camp Cropper, a US base near Baghdad airport, Reuters reported.
Ahmed Nouri, an Iraqi cameraman employed by the US news agency The Associated Press, was arrested by American troops on June 4 in Tikrit, and is still being held on security grounds at a base there.
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