Wow. In just over two years, more journos have died in Iraq than did during the entire Vietnam War.

An excerpt from the Reuters story carried by globeandmail.com:

More journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March, 2003, than during the 20 years of conflict in Vietnam, media rights group Reporters Without Borders said yesterday.

The latest casualty was a Reuters Television soundman who was shot dead in Baghdad yesterday while a cameraman with him was wounded and then detained by U.S. soldiers. That brings to 66 the number of journalists and their assistants who have been killed since the United States and its allies launched their campaign in Iraq on March 20, 2003.

The death toll in Iraq compares with a total of 63 journalists killed in Vietnam, which was over a period of 20 years from 1955 to 1975, the Paris-based organization that campaigns to protect journalists said on its website.

During the fighting in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995, 49 journalists were killed doing their job, while 57 journalists and 20 media assistants were killed during the civil war in Algeria from 1993 to 1996.

Here's some stuff of the death of Wahleed Kahled, 35, who was apparently shot to death by a U.S. sniper:

A team from Reuters News Agency was on assignment to cover the killing of two policemen in Hay al-Adil; U.S. forces opened fire on the team from Reuters and killed Waleed Khaled, who was shot in the head, and wounded [cameraman] Haider Kadhem," an Interior Ministry official quoted the police incident report as saying.

Mr. Kadhem, 24, who was wounded in the back, told colleagues at the scene: "I heard shooting, looked up and saw an American sniper on the roof of the shopping centre."

The only known witness, he was later detained by the U.S. troops. For 10 hours, U.S. officers said they could not trace him. Finally, a spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Whetstone, said he was being held at an unspecified location. His "superficial" wound had been treated "on location," he said.

Two Iraqi colleagues who arrived on the scene minutes after the shooting were briefly detained and released: "They treated us like dogs. They made us . . . including Haider who was wounded and asking for water, sit in the sun on the road," one said.

A U.S. statement on the incident said: "Task Force Baghdad units responded to a terrorist attack on an Iraqi Police convoy around 11:20 a.m. . . . which killed and wounded several Iraqi police. One civilian was killed and another was wounded by small-arms fire during the attack."

Asked about the incident at a news conference marking the adoption of a draft constitution for Iraq, U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said: "Sometimes mistakes are made."

You can see more on both aspects of this post at Reporters without Borders' Iraq page.