Wali was hit by a single bullet "when he stuck his head out from the rooftop of the hotel"

DOHA , May 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Al-Jazeera Friday, May 21, asked the U.S. occupation forces for "quick and full" investigation" after the killing of one of its employees covering clashes in Karbala .

Rashid Hamid Wali, 44, was standing next to an al-Jazeera cameraman on the fourth floor of the hotel housing the crew, the website of the Qatar-based news network said.

They were filming overnight fierce clashes between U.S. occupation forces and followers of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, reported journalist abdel-Alim Mohamed, also working for the channel.

"He looked up to try to locate the place of the U.S. military vehicles, but he was shot in the head by machine guns," said Mohamed.

The father of six died instantly, and there was a power cut followed by a heavy exchange of fire as U.S. vehicles were rumbling nearby, the correspondent added.

Although Mohamed underlined the source of the fire could not be confirmed, he said "it was directly pointed at us".

"Wali was hit by a single bullet when he stuck his head out from the rooftop of the hotel, looking down on the street, after hearing the sound of U.S. armored vehicles moving," al-Jazeera said in a statement.

Investigation

The channel network – the most watched by Arabic-speaking audience - demanded the U.S. forces to conduct a full and quick investigation into the death of Wali.

"Al-Jazeera asks the U.S. occupying forces and the temporary Iraqi Governing Council to carry a quick, official and full investigation to find out the facts," read the statement.

Al-Jazeera – which had earlier angered the United States for its coverage in Iraq – lost last April another employee, correspondent Tareq Ayyoub, when U.S. forces hit with missiles  the channel’s office in Baghdad before invading the capital.

The channel’s officials then charged the missile attack was a "deliberate" strike, recalling that the office of the station had been hit in November 2001 during the U.S.-led assault on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan .

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said this month Iraqi journalists were playing a larger role in covering the U.S.-led invasion and occupation and were frequently harassed, threatened and attacked in the war-scarred country.

Too Early

Gareth Bailey, spokesperson for the occupation authority, told al-Jazeera that it is "still early to report the real story".

"Our target is not the journalists," Bailey said.

Relations between al-Jazeera and the U.S. occupation forces have been always running on a collision course.

In April, the United States asked al-Jazeera crew to leave Fallujah as one of conditions for reaching a settlement to the stand-off in the besieged western Baghdad town, after the correspondent for the channel warned of a humanitarian disaster there.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed on November 25 he has seen reports suggesting Aljazeera have cooperated  with Iraqi resistance fighters attacking U.S. troops.

"They are hurting us," Rumsfeld was quoted as saying, in reference to Aljazeera and Dubai-based Al-Arabiya station.

Abuse

Twenty-eight journalists have been killed covering the offensive and its aftermath since the United States invaded in March 2003.

The overnight attack came a few days after three Iraqis working for Reuters said they suffered sexual abuse and religious taunts by U.S. forces who detained them last January near Fallujah

On August 18, U.S. troops shot dead  an award-winning Reuters cameraman while he was filming on Sunday, August 17, near a U.S.-run detention camp in Baghdad .