BAGHDAD, November 7 (IslamOnline.net) - The U.S. occupation forces fired at an IslamOnline.net reporter while on duty taking photos at the scene of a Baghdad explosion Friday, November 7.

The shooting spree began when Imam El-Leithy and his aide rushed to the area where they have just heard the blast, some 500 meters nearby, on the highway of the western Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Ghazaliya.

"They deliberately opened fire on us in a quick succession," El-Leithy recalled, adding that U.S. armored vehicles litter the highway to provide protection for their patrols, regularly passing by.

Seeking shelter, the IOL correspondent moved swiftly to a close mosque.

"The shooting was heavy. In a nutshell, I ducked down and swept to the dome of the mosque," A shaky Imam remembered.

A lull ensued, only to be interrupted a few minutes later when the U.S. soldiers resumed the shooting after seeing the IOL reporter on the rooftop of the mosque with the camera in hand.

The attack left no damage or injuries, but eyewitnesses said the U.S. soldiers are used to attack any reporter seeking to snap photos of frequent explosion scenes.

"For God's sake, do not try to shoot photos, otherwise, you will meet the same fate of the other reporter," appealed octogenarian Hussein, a local inhabitant of the area.

A Reuters soundman who was with Dana when he was killed, said the U.S. soldiers had seen them and knew they were journalists.

The shooting spree also came a few days after U.S. soldiers detained two journalists while covering the aftermath of an attack on a U.S. convoy in Fallujah on October 19, according to Paris-based Frontiers Without Borders.

The police told the journalists - Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Patrick Baz and a Reuters cameraman - that they were being detained on U.S. orders and could not be freed until U.S. officers arrived on the scene.

The U.S. military actions against foreign correspondents working in Iraq have drawn howls of protests from international media outlets and organizations as well as specialists.

"Obstruction of journalists trying to do their job in Iraq is on the rise and must stop," Reporters Without Frontiers secretary-general Robert Ménard had said in an earlier press release.

Menard said the number of attacks on press freedom there are becoming alarming, and said that 11 journalists were killed in action in Iraq since the beginning of the invasion, March 20.

Ménard said that in isolated cases "we have seen soldiers being hostile to news media personnel".

"Such behavior is unacceptable and must be punished. It is essential that clear instructions and calls for caution are given to soldiers in the field so that the freedom of movement and work of journalists is respected in Iraq," he continued.

Ménard believed that U.S. troops had committed many blunders during the invasion in Iraq "but none has been the subject of an investigation worthy of the name".

Al-Jazeera satellite channel, whom Washington has repeatedly slammed its reports as hostile to the occupation forces in Iraq, has protested against what it termed “deliberate attacks” against its correspondents in the war-scarred country.