LONDON, Sept 25: Reuters Chief Executive Tom Glocer has criticized the “haphazard” handling of a US report into the killing of a Reuters cameraman by a US soldier in Iraq and urged the Pentagon to hand it over.

Glocer told Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a letter released on Thursday that he was deeply dismayed that neither Reuters nor the family of its cameraman Mazen Dana had been properly informed of the conclusion of a military investigation into Dana’s death. The letter was sent on Wednesday.

Dana, an award-winning Palestinian cameraman, was shot by a soldier on a tank as he filmed near Baghdad on August 17.

A US spokesman in Baghdad told other reporters that the inquiry had found troops respected their rules of engagement in the incident, but that Washington would not publish the full report. Reuters found out about the report by subsequently questioning the spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel George Krivo.

“I ask you now to ensure that a full copy of the report is made available to Reuters and Mazen Dana’s family,” Glocer said.—Reuters