Baghdad  - An Iraqi cameraman was allegedly killed by a US sniper in Baghdad's al-Obaidy area, media reports said on Thursday, but the US military said there was no confirmation of such a killing.

Quoting a statement issued by the Press Rights group, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency said that Wissam Auda, a 32-year-old Iraqi cameraman for the al-Afaq satellite channel, was killed on Wednesday by a US sniper.

However, the US military told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that there was no confirmation that any Iraqi civilians were killed as a result of operations on Wednesday.

"Coalition forces only engage hostile threats and take every precaution to protect innocent civilians," an official with the US military forces told dpa.

The killed cameraman was born in 1975 and a graduate of the faculty of media. The death brings the total number of killed journalists in Iraq to 258 since April 2003. (dpa)