Baghdad - An Iraqi photographer and a driver working for the international news agency Reuters were killed in Baghdad on Thursday, witnesses and the company said.
Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, were killed in eastern Baghdad when a rocket or shell hit a minibus carrying wounded Iraqis in the Al-Amin neighbourhood, which they were filming.
Witnesses claimed that a US helicopter had fired the missile, although a Reuters statement also said the explosion could have been caused by a mortar shell of the kind fired by militia fighters.
An AFP photographer at the scene said seven more bystanders were killed.
The deaths take to six the number of Reuters employees killed in Iraq since US-led forces invaded the country in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.
"Once again we are left mourning colleagues who have met an untimely death while doing their job in Iraq," Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer said in the statement.
"Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh's outstanding contribution to reporting on the unfolding events in Iraq has been vital. They stand alongside other colleagues in Reuters who have died doing a job that they believe in."
Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said the deaths were a tragic reminder of the risks journalists face in covering the war in Iraq.
"The job our reporters do is a critical one - telling the world what is happening on the streets of Iraq on a daily basis," said Schlesinger.
Noor-Eldeen was single. Chmagh was married with four children.