Meanwhile, in Iraq, US forces have detained another Iraqi journalist. Baghdad TV camera operator Omar Hisham and three family members were seized when US troops broke into their home. Hisham’s mother described the raid.

Umm Omar: “I was preparing our pre-dawn meal for the holy month of Ramadan, when I heard voices that told us to evict the house. When we began to open the doors and put on our scarves and gowns, they bombed the door of the house. You saw the broken lock. They took my son Omar — he is a cameraman who works for a Baghdad channel — the father who suffers from a stroke, the youngest brother who is sick, and the eldest one. They did not leave anyone.”

The arrests come just two days after US troops detained a freelance Iraqi photographer at his home in the town of Mahmudiya. The photographer, Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, also had his equipment seized.