South Sudan Says There Was No Hint That Dead American Was a Journalist

Juba, South Sudan (AP) -- The American journalist shot dead in South Sudan over the weekend had entered the country illegally with rebels, the army said Tuesday.

There was no indication that Christopher Allen, 26, was a journalist, said army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang, who warned that journalists will not be protected if they come with rebels into this East African country's civil war.

"Anybody who comes attacking us with hostile forces will meet his fate," said Koang.

Allen, a freelance journalist, was killed Saturday in fighting between government and rebel forces near the Ugandan border. His body was handed over by South Sudan's army to the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday.

Allen was shot in the head with a "large bullet," the army's chief medical officer, Dr. Peter Ajak Bullen, said, but he couldn't confirm that the American was killed at close range.

It is not clear who shot Allen. "Bullets don't know color or race," the army spokesman told journalists.

South Sudan's rebels have given a different account of Allen's death. Government troops "targeted" Allen when they saw him taking photos during the fighting, opposition spokesman William Gatjiath Deng said. The opposition said Allen was wearing a large vest with the word "Press."

The opposition's deputy spokesman, Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, has said Allen and two other journalists were embedded with the rebels on a two-week mission after coming from Uganda's capital, Kampala.

Allen is the 10th journalist and the first international journalist to be killed in South Sudan since 2012, according to the United Nations. South Sudan is one of the harshest places in the world for journalists, according to press freedom groups. In the past few months, 15 South Sudanese journalists have been detained, beaten or denied access to information, according to the Union of Journalists in South Sudan, and more than 20 foreign journalists have been denied entry or kicked out.

South Sudan's civil war is well into its fourth year, with tens of thousands of people killed. The fighting, often along ethnic lines, defies peace deals and unilateral cease-fires.

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This version corrects the age of the journalist to 26.

[Editor notes: Eds: Corrects age of journalist to 26. Updates summary. With AP Photos.]