British Journalist Shot and Killed Outside Baghdad Museum

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A British journalist was shot and killed outside the Iraqi National Museum (search) in Baghdad on Saturday, witnesses said.

The identity of the journalist, a freelance television producer, was not immediately known. Fellow journalists, asking that their names not be used, said the male journalist was outside museum when he was shot.

Britain's ITN television news (search) said it believed the man previously had worked as a researcher for the network but was not employed by them when he was shot.

"We believe the man is someone who has previously worked for ITN, including during the Iraq war, but he was not employed by us out there at this time. He was freelancing," a spokeswoman for ITN said on condition of anonymity.

The network declined to name the man, saying his next of kin had not been informed.

Ambushes, shootings and other attacks, blamed on loyalists of Saddam Hussein, have plagued American soldiers in Iraq in recent weeks -- but so far there has been no sign of journalists being explicitly targeted. An American soldier guarding the museum was shot and killed by a sniper on Thursday.

The British Foreign Office (search) contacted in London confirmed that a man had been shot but said details were still sketchy.

"We are urgently investigating reports of a British freelance journalist being shot today in Baghdad," a spokesman said.

The foreign office was trying to identify the body of a man thought to be in his mid-20s, at which stage next of kin will be informed."

The death brings to 16 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since the start of the war on March 20.