Reporters group calls for investigation after US journalist killed in South Sudan

Earlier a rebel spokesman said Mr Allen was wearing a clearly marked press vest and had been shot at after he began to take pictures.

"Allen was targeted. The person who shot saw him very clearly," Colonel Paul Lam Gabriel told the AFP.

He said Allen had been embedded with the rebels for two weeks before the firefight on Saturday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement it was “deeply troubled” by the suggestion Allen was not deserving of civilian status and called for an independent investigation into the circumstances of his death.

Allen’s parents said in a statement to the AP that they are devastated and their son "passionately sought the truth from every perspective."

Mr Allen, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, began his career as a freelancer during the Ukraine crisis of 2014.

He was one of the first reporters on the scene after the shoot down of Malaysian airlines flight MH17 in July that year, on which he reported for the Telegraph^[1].

References

1. ^{^}  which he reported for the Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk)