The merchant pulled his rifle on the thieves when they began sacking the shop, neighbors said.

When US soldiers approached the area, the looters told them that the shopkeeper was a member of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen paramilitary force.

The American troops opened fire with heavy machine guns, killing the man, the neighbors said.

The photographer saw the covered body of Mohammad al-Barheini, 25, lying on a shelf of his shop, his head in a bag, on the Al-Rashid commercial street in the capital.

SPACE.WIRE