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- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Mazen al-Tumeizi "born 1978 – September 12, 2004" was a Palestinian journalist, killed on-camera in Baghdad, Iraq by U.S. helicopter gunfire while covering the Haifa Street helicopter incident.
His last moments were recorded by the camera he had been reporting into, including his dying words as he gasped to his cameraman.
The graphic tape of his death sparked an increase in concern for journalists reporting in occupied Iraq, as well as outrage in the Arab world.
Tumeizi was a Palestinian reporter for Saudi-owned news networks al-Arabiya and al-Ikhbariya. He was the third al-Arabiya journalist to be killed in Iraq by U.S. forces, after reporter Ali al-Khatib and cameraman Ali Abdelaziz.
Tumeizi died during the Haifa Street helicopter incident. The footage shows Tumeizi covering a group of curious Iraqis ullulating around the wreckage of a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle that had been recently abandoned after suffering damage from an improvised roadside bomb attack. A loud explosion can then be heard, followed by layers of smoke and debris. Tumeizi collapses from the impact, falling toward the camera, and the camera's lens is spattered with his blood as he falls. The cameraman (identified by Tumeizi as "Seif") loses focus, but Tumeizi's last words are captured in the camera's audio feed:
I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Seif. Seif. I'm going to die.
"Seif" would later be identified as Reuters camera operator Seif Fouad, who was also injured in a subsequent rocket strike.
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