The war in Iraq, the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history, kept the country at the top of the world's most dangerous places for the press. Thirty-two journalists and 12 media support staffers were killed during the year, bringing the record toll to 174 media personnel killed in the line of duty since the U.S. invasion of March 2003. Improving security conditions in parts of the country in 2007 may have had an effect on media deaths, as most occurred in the first seven months of the year.

The vast majority of victims continued to be Iraqis, most of whom were singled out by armed groups and murdered with impunity. Since the war began, nearly nine in 10 media deaths have been Iraqi journalists working for the numerous local media outlets that sprouted after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, or serving as frontline reporters for international media organizations.

Armed groups such as Sunni insurgents, Sunni and Shiite militias, and other, unidentified armed assailants were responsible for most of the killings. The motives were typically murky. The disorder that prevailed in much of the country made it difficult to determine whether the victims were singled out for their work, their sect, or their political allegiances – or were simply caught up in the general violence. In some cases, journalists may have been targeted because of their past work as translators for the U.S. military, complicating the task of determining a motive.

Still, there was ample evidence of armed groups and militias ruthlessly targeting journalists because of their reporting or editorial views. Working for a Western news organization, where Iraqis might be suspected of being spies, or for a news outlet deemed hostile to a certain group, could mean a death sentence. Threats have forced many Iraqi journalists to live clandestinely, leave the profession altogether, or flee the country.

In a case emblematic of the danger, Sahar Hussein Ali al-Haydari, a correspondent for the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA) and the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq and a contributor to a number of other Iraqi media outlets, was slain by gunmen in her hometown of Mosul in June. Al-Haydari was shopping in Mosul's Al-Hadbaa neighborhood when four unidentified men got out of a vehicle, shot her, and fled the scene, taking her cell phone with them. Al-Haydari had been covering a suicide attack on a police station in the nearby town of Al-Rabiya, according to NINA. When a police captain called later that day to give her more information on the story, the killers answered her phone and said: "She went to hell." Al-Haydari had received multiple death threats. In an e-mail to CPJ on March 22, al-Haydari said her name was fourth on a death list composed of journalists and police officers. The list had been circulated throughout Mosul and posted on the door to her home. According to Aswat al-Iraq, it was issued by the "Emir of the Islamic State in Mosul," the local leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq.

Abductions continued to plague the press, as they did for much of the population at large. Radio Free Iraq correspondent Jumana al-Obaidi, for example, was held by kidnappers for nearly two weeks after gunmen seized her from a car taking her to an assignment at the Ministry of Environment on October 22. Her driver was slain.

Due to the perilous situation in Baghdad, the number of foreign correspondents continued to dwindle, and those who remained were often heavily circumscribed in their movements for fear of abduction or attack. For many, the only way to visit parts of the country was to embed with the military or travel with considerable calculation and the aid of security details. The danger eroded the ability of journalists – especially the more conspicuous television crews – to report from the field, and it forced news organizations to rely increasingly on Iraqis for news and information from areas deemed too dangerous for Westerners.

The heightened role of Iraqi journalists as frontline correspondents took a toll. Khalid W. Hassan, 23, a reporter and interpreter for The New York Times, was slain in July while driving to work in the south-central Seiydia district of Baghdad. That same month, Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant, Saeed Chmagh, were killed in eastern Baghdad during what witnesses described as a U.S. helicopter attack. And in May, ABC News cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf were shot and killed in an ambush on their way home from the network's Baghdad bureau.

Some international news organizations have found it difficult to find local journalists willing to work for them. Former New York Times Baghdad Bureau Chief John F. Burns told the New York Observer that "the pool of available people is shrinking," and noted that "working for an American institution in Iraq – whether the embassy, armed forces, or media organizations – carries with it a considerable hazard." Burns said that numerous Iraqi staff members had fled to Jordan and Syria.

Deaths of foreign reporters have become less frequent as these journalists keep lower profiles and step up security precautions. One foreign journalist was killed in 2007. On May 6, Dmitry Chebotayev, a Russian freelance photographer embedded with U.S. forces, was killed along with six American soldiers when a roadside bomb struck a U.S. military vehicle in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

The U.S. military poses another threat to journalist safety. At least 16 journalists have been killed by U.S. forces' fire since March 2003. The July attack that killed the Reuters photographer and his assistant – as well as nine other Iraqis in the Al-Amin al-Thaniyah neighborhood – came during an American air strike. The military said in a statement that troops had come under fire and "were clearly engaged" with hostile forces when the Reuters employees were killed. In July, Reuters demanded an investigation after it said new evidence had emerged that contradicted the U.S. description of events. According to eyewitnesses, Reuters said, the U.S. forces fired indiscriminately.

The U.S. military has failed to fully investigate or properly account for the killings of journalists in Iraq, CPJ found. After a CPJ Freedom of Information Act request, the Pentagon disclosed its 2004 investigation exonerating U.S. troops in the killings of two Al-Arabiya journalists at a Baghdad checkpoint that year. The report failed to address contradictory witness reports, including statements from Al-Arabiya employees, that at least two U.S. soldiers fired directly on the journalists' vehicle. Neither did it address testimony from Al-Arabiya employees that a U.S. tank may have briefly collided with the press vehicle moments before soldiers opened fire. The report also failed to reconcile the military's conclusions with statements by Al-Arabiya employees that the checkpoint was poorly illuminated.

Elsewhere, U.S. forces harassed or obstructed the work of journalists in a number of instances. In February, the U.S. military raided the headquarters of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate and ransacked the premises while briefly detaining staff, according to local journalists. The military continued its practice of open-ended detentions of journalists. In April, Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein marked his one-year anniversary in U.S. military custody without charge.

Hussein was taken by U.S. forces on April 12, 2006, in the western city of Ramadi and placed in a U.S. prison in Iraq for "imperative reasons of security." But he was not tried or charged with a crime, and the military disclosed no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. U.S. officials have since made numerous, shifting allegations against the journalist. U.S. military officials accused Hussein of having prior knowledge of insurgent attacks, but they did not substantiate the accusation. According to the AP, officials at one point alleged that Hussein was involved in the insurgent kidnapping of two Arab journalists in Ramadi – a claim the AP said it had investigated and discredited. The two journalists had not implicated Hussein in their abduction; they had instead praised him for his assistance when they were released. The military's only evidence supporting its claim, according to the AP, appeared to be images of the journalists, taken after their release, that were found in Hussein's camera. The AP said it believed Hussein was being held because of his photographic work documenting combat in Anbar province. Finally, in November 2007, the U.S. military said it would refer Hussein's case to the Iraqi justice system because "new evidence [had] come to light." That evidence remained a secret in late year.

Hussein's detention was not an isolated incident. Dozens of journalists, mostly Iraqis, have been detained by U.S. troops, according to CPJ research. While most have been released after short periods, in at least eight cases documented by CPJ, Iraqi journalists were held for weeks or months without charge or conviction. In all of those detentions, the journalists were released without charges being substantiated.

The Iraqi government continued to commit a wide range of press freedom abuses that included censorship, arbitrary detentions, threats, physical attacks, and harassment. On January 1, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, which operates a special unit charged with monitoring coverage for "inaccurate" news, ordered the closure of Al-Sharqiya TV's Baghdad office for fomenting sectarian violence and reporting false news. The ban followed Al-Sharqiya's coverage of Saddam Hussein's execution on December 30, 2006, during which the presenter wore black clothing in mourning for the former Iraqi president. The channel referred to Saddam as "president," while state-owned television broadcasts called him a "tyrant" and a "criminal." The satellite channel had already decided to close its Baghdad bureau because of security concerns but continued broadcasting from its Dubai headquarters.

Officials again obstructed the press on May 13, when Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, announced that journalists would be barred from the scenes of bomb attacks for one hour. Khalaf said the ban would protect journalists from a second bomb attack at the same site. "We do not want evidence to be disturbed before the arrival of detectives," he said, adding that he did "not want to give terrorists information that they achieved their goals." Journalists told CPJ they viewed the ban as an attempt to limit coverage of the violence. Iraqi police enforced the order two days later, when they prevented journalists from covering the aftermath of a twin bomb attack at Baghdad's Tayaran Square. Camera operators and photographers who sought to report at the scene were met by Iraqi police, who fired shots in the air to disperse the press. The restrictions remained in place and continued to be enforced in late year.

Throughout the year there were numerous reports that security forces harassed journalists by physically assaulting them, seizing their footage, interrogating them, and expelling them from press conferences or from official offices.

On February 25, Ministry of Interior forces raided the Baghdad offices of Wasan Media and detained 11 employees. The ministry claimed that Wasan, which provides technical support to news organizations, supplied the banned satellite station Al-Jazeera with footage of an Iraqi woman who alleged she was raped by three Iraqi police officers. Wasan denied supplying footage to Al-Jazeera and noted that the interview was filmed by several news organizations and was widely available. The Wasan workers were charged with incitement to terror under Iraq's antiterrorism law, but a criminal court in Baghdad dismissed the charges and freed the men several months later.

Iraq's Kurdistan region has been spared much of the violence that has consumed other parts of the country, and independent journalists have carved out space for critical reporting. But in 2007 outspoken writers were plagued by several violent attacks perpetrated by suspected government agents, as well as criminal lawsuits filed by thin-skinned politicians. In one October attack, four armed men wearing military uniforms abducted and assaulted Nasseh Abdel Raheem Rashid, a Halabja-based journalist who writes for the expatriate online news site Kurdistanpost. The men, driving a Nissan truck, placed a sack over Rashid's head, handcuffed him, tied his legs with a scarf, and drove him around for two hours before stopping in a remote area. There, the men began to punch, kick, and threaten him. In his writings for Kurdistanpost, Rashid had frequently criticized Kurdish authorities and the practices of the Kurdish security forces, known as Asayish.

In November, a CPJ delegation to the northern city of Arbil expressed alarm over the attacks and concern about a press bill before the Kurdistan parliament. A bill passed in late year would set fines of up to 10 million dinars (US$8,200) for vaguely worded offenses such as disturbing security, spreading fear, or encouraging terrorism, according to local journalists. Given the tenuous financial situation of independent papers – several operate at losses or barely break even – the elastic language could be exploited to put critical publications out of business. The bill would also allow the government to suspend newspapers and jail journalists under other criminal code provisions. Masoud Barazani, president of the regional government, said in December that he would veto the bill and send it back to parliament for revision.


Journalists killed in 2007 in Iraq

Ahmed Hadi Naji, Associated Press Television News
January 5, 2007, Baghdad

Naji, 28, a cameraman for Associated Press Television News, was found in a Baghdad morgue with a gunshot wound to the back of the head, six days after he had gone missing.

The journalist left his home in southwest Baghdad's Ashurta al-Khamsa district for work on the morning of December 30, 2006, AP reported. His wife, Sahba'a Mudhar Khalil, reported him missing that evening, the news agency said. The circumstances surrounding his death were unclear, according to AP. A coroner's report could not pinpoint a date of death, a CPJ source said.

The source said Naji had received telephone threats a year previous, prompting him to move his family to a safer location. Naji also worked as a messenger for the news agency.

Naji was the second AP employee killed in less than four weeks. On December 12, 2006, Aswan Ahmed Lutfallah, 35, was gunned down by insurgents while filming clashes between Iraqi police and insurgents in the northern city of Mosul.

Falah Khalaf al-Diyali, Al-Sa'a
January 15, 2007, Ramadi

Several gunmen in a car followed al-Diyali, a photographer for the Baghdad-based newspaper Al-Sa'a, and then shot him in Ramadi's central neighborhood of Malaab, a journalist familiar with the case told CPJ. Al-Diyali died at the scene, the journalist said.

Just before he was killed, al-Diyali photographed damage to the central mosque in Ramadi caused by a U.S. bombardment the previous day, the source said. Witnesses said al-Diyali was being watched while he was taking photographs. The gunmen caught up with al-Diyali after he drove away from the mosque, the source told CPJ.

Al-Sa'a was established immediately after Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003. It is a political and social weekly owned by prominent Sunni cleric Ahmad Kubeisi. Al-Diyala also contributed photographs on a freelance basis to the state-run daily Al-Sabah, the source said.

Hussein al-Zubaidi, Al-Ahali
January 28, 2007, Baghdad

Gunmen abducted al-Zubaidi, an editor for the independent weekly Al-Ahali, in early morning in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Al-Saleekh, a source at the paper told CPJ. Although there are conflicting dates for al-Zubaidi's death, the source said he was killed on January 28. People identifying themselves as the abductors contacted al-Zubaidi's family and demanded $20,000 but could not provide proof that the journalist was alive, the source said. Iraqi police notified the family the following day that al-Zubaidi's body had been found.

Two sources at the paper told CPJ that they believed al-Zubaidi was targeted for his work. One of them said that the journalist was active in his profession, carrying a press card and frequently visiting government ministries and civil society organizations. The other source said no other motive for his killing was evident.

Al-Zubaidi, who was born in 1953, specialized in investigative reporting, a source at the paper said. He also covered civil society organizations and higher education, and worked as head of information at Baghdad University's College of Dentistry.

Abdulrazak Hashim Ayal al-Khakani, Jumhuriyat al-Iraq
February 5, 2007, Baghdad

Iraqi police discovered the body of al-Khakani, 45, an editor and news presenter at Jumhuriyat al-Iraq radio, and that of his cousin, in Baghdad's western neighborhood of Al-Jihad. The bodies had several gunshot wounds, al-Khakani's brother, Majid, told CPJ.

Gunmen abducted the two on February 4.

The family identified the journalist on February 19 in Baghdad's Al-Tib al-Adli morgue. The abductors had taken his identification cards, the brother said.

The kidnappers spoke several times with the family using al-Khakani's cell phone. Majid al-Khakani told CPJ that the kidnappers told him they killed al-Khakani because he was a journalist who was harming Iraq. They identified themselves as belonging to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Al-Khakani had returned to Iraq in 2003 after spending 21 years as a prisoner of war in Iran following his capture in 1982 during the Iran-Iraq war. Al-Khakani presented a news show for the radio station that addressed government and politics, Majid al-Khakani told CPJ.

Radio Jumhuriyat al-Iraq is part of the state-run Iraqi Media Network. Insurgents have frequently targeted state-run media because of their ties to the U.S.-supported Iraqi government.

Jamal al-Zubaidi, As-Saffir and Al-Dustour
February 24, 2007, Baghdad

The body of al-Zubaidi, 56, an economics editor for the Baghdad-based dailies As-Saffir and Al-Dustour, was identified by his family in a Baghdad morgue. Al-Zubaidi's son, Riyah, told CPJ that police found the editor's body with gunshot wounds to the head in Baghdad's southwestern neighborhood of Al-Aamal.

Al-Zubaidi's identification cards and cell phone were taken by the gunmen. He was last seen leaving As-Saffir's offices in the central Karada neighborhood around 1 p.m. on February 24.

Al-Zubaidi had worked for As-Saffir and Al-Dustour for three years. Two journalists for As-Saffir were killed by gunmen in September 2005 in Mosul. Another was kidnapped and held for ransom for nearly three weeks in March 2006.

Mohan Hussein al-Dhahir, Al-Mashreq
March 4, 2007, Baghdad

Several gunmen in two vehicles attempted to abduct al-Dhahir, 49, managing editor of the Baghdad daily Al-Mashreq, at 8:30 a.m. while he waited outside his home in Baghdad's Al-Jamia neighborhood for the paper's car to pick him up for work, according to sources at the paper. After a struggle, the sources said, the gunmen shot al-Dhahir six times in the back and once in the head.

Al-Mashreq is a privately owned, widely read Baghdad newspaper that publishes commentary critical of the government, according to local journalists. The paper had received numerous warnings to stop publishing, local journalists said. Al-Dhahir worked nearly four years for the paper.

Yussef Sabri, Biladi
March 7, 2007, Baghdad

Sabri, 26, a cameraman for the Biladi satellite channel, was among several journalists filming pilgrims traveling southwest from Baghdad to the Shiite holy city of Karbala, according to sources at the station. Iraqi security forces had set up checkpoints to safeguard the way for the pilgrims. Sabri and other journalists were traveling in a convoy with Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta al-Mussawi, Iraqi spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, who was reviewing the checkpoints.

Sources at the station told CPJ that an explosives-laden car appeared from a side road in the Al-Saydiya neighborhood of Baghdad's Al-Rasheed district and fired at the convoy. The car accelerated, hit the last vehicle in the convoy, and blew up. Sabri and the others in the vehicle were killed in the blast, the sources said. The U.S. military said 12 Iraqi soldiers were killed, according to The Associated Press.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq was suspected of carrying out the attack since it controlled the Al-Rasheed district, a hotbed of violence. Sabri had worked for six months at Biladi, an independent channel with a pro-government editorial line established by former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Hamid al-Duleimi, Nahrain
March 17, 2007, Baghdad

Gunmen abducted al-Duleimi, a producer for the privately owned Nahrain satellite channel, as he left work in Baghdad's Al-Aamel neighborhood, a source at Nahrain told CPJ. He had driven only about 650 feet (200 meters) from the station when he was seized.

Late that night, eyewitnesses saw his body being thrown on a pile of garbage in a neighborhood alley, according to the station source. Family and colleagues identified al-Duleimi two days later at a Baghdad hospital morgue. The source said al-Duleimi had several gunshot wounds to the head, and his body showed signs of torture, including multiple burns and broken hands, legs, and neck.

Al-Duleimi, born in 1977, was survived by his then-pregnant wife and three children, another source at the station said. Al-Aamel neighborhood was controlled by the Mahdi Army, led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a local journalist told CPJ.

Thaer Ahmad Jaber, Baghdad TV
April 5, 2007, Baghdad

A suicide attacker driving a garbage truck packed with explosives set off a blast near the main entrance of Baghdad TV's offices on April 5, killing Deputy Director Jaber and injuring 12 employees, according to CPJ sources and a statement by the Iraqi Islamic Party.

The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization, reported that the attackers fired at the station's guards, clearing the way for the truck. The front of the building, which housed the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party-owned Baghdad TV and Radio Dar al-Salam, was destroyed along with several station and employee vehicles, according to news reports. The main transmission equipment was damaged, briefly interrupting broadcasts.

Jaber often helped CPJ document attacks against journalists in Iraq. CPJ learned of Jaber's death after calling his cell phone and being informed by a family member that he had been killed.

Khamail Khalaf, Radio Free Iraq
April 5, 2007, Baghdad

Radio Free Iraq reporter Khalaf, who was kidnapped April 3 from Baghdad's Yarmouk district, was found dead in the city's Al-Jamia neighborhood on April 5, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and CPJ sources. Police received an anonymous call informing them that there was a body on the street. They came under heavy fire by unidentified assailants when they went to retrieve the body, according to RFE/RL and CPJ sources.

RFE/RL reported that an unidentified caller used Khalaf's cell phone to contact her family, but no demands for ransom were made. Khalaf had received prior threats, according to RFE/RL. It was not clear if the threats were directly work-related.

Khalaf had reported on social and cultural life in Iraq for Radio Free Iraq since 2004, according to a statement by RFE/RL. Radio Free Iraq is the Arabic language service of RFE/RL in Iraq, broadcasting from the network's headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic.

Othman al-Mashhadani, Al-Watan
April 6, 2007, Baghdad

The body of al-Mashhadani, 29, was found by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad's northwestern district of Al-Shoula three days after he was abducted.

Al-Mashhadani, a reporter for Saudi Arabia's daily newspaper Al-Watan, was abducted on his way home from work between the northwestern Baghdad districts of Al-Shoula and Al-Ghazaliya, according to CPJ sources. Colleagues told CPJ that al-Mashhadani was on assignment covering the Baghdad security plan and its effects on the Mahdi Army, led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Mashhadani was shot in the head and chest; his body showed signs of torture and the fingers on his right hand were broken, according to CPJ sources and the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization. His captors called his family hours after his abduction demanding a ransom, but there was no further communication, the organization reported.

The Mahdi Army had a stronghold in Al-Shoula while the predominantly Sunni district of Al-Ghazaliya was under the control of the Islamic Army, the largest Sunni insurgent group.

A colleague told CPJ that al-Mashhadani reported on the activities of the Islamic Army and other militias. Al-Mashhadani began work for Al-Watan in October 2006, according to an article published by the paper. He had also worked as a freelance reporter for the prominent pan-Arab weekly magazine Al-Watan al-Arabi since 2005.

Khaled Fayyad Obaid al-Hamdani, Nahrain
April 12, 2007, Abu Ghraib

Al-Hamdani, a producer for the privately owned Nahrain satellite channel, was killed in a shooting that involved U.S. military forces, according to a station source and a relative. Al-Hamdani was driving at high speed from his home in Abu Ghraib to work in Baghdad when troops opened fire, the relative told CPJ. The source said al-Hamdani had often driven at high speed to minimize danger; the military patrol was apparently alarmed by the rate of speed. The road, a main access to Baghdad, was so notoriously dangerous that it was called the Highway of Death.

The relative told CPJ that his account was based on conversations with U.S. military personnel and eyewitnesses. A U.S. military spokesman said the military had no record of the shooting.

Al-Hamadani, 36, prepared documentary and cultural programs for the channel. He was survived by a wife and children.

Dmitry Chebotayev, freelance
May 6, 2007, Diyala

Chebotayev was the first Russian journalist to be killed in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003. A freelance photographer embedded with U.S. forces, Chebotayev was killed along with six American soldiers when a roadside bomb struck a U.S. military vehicle in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

Chebotayev was on assignment for the Russian edition of Newsweek magazine, reporting on the efforts of U.S. forces to control roads in Diyala province, Leonid Parfyonov, the edition editor, told CPJ. Chebotayev, 29, had freelanced for several news agencies, including the German-based European Pressphoto Agency and the independent Moscow daily Kommersant. He had been in Iraq for more than two months.

Raad Mutashar, Al-Raad
May 9, 2007, outside Kirkuk

Gunmen riding in an Opel without a license plate intercepted a vehicle carrying Mutashar, 43, owner and director of a media company, on a road southwest of Kirkuk at around 2 p.m., a company source told CPJ. The source said the gunmen shot Mutashar, driver Imad Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaid, and passengers Nibras Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaid and Aqil Abdul-Qadir. The Associated Press first reported the attack.

Mutashar's company, Al-Raad, published a weekly newspaper, Al-Iraq Ghadan, and a related institute operated a news agency and a media education center. A CPJ source said Mutashar was a prominent writer, poet, and journalist who started the company four years earlier.

The CPJ source said Mutashar's son was kidnapped more than a year previous but was released after a ransom was paid. The kidnappers told Mutashar that his journalistic work had prompted the abduction, the source said.

Imad Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaid and Nibras Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaid were Mutashar's brothers-in-law.

Alaa Uldeen Aziz, ABC News
Saif Laith Yousuf, ABC News
May 17, 2007, Baghdad

Gunmen in two cars ambushed and killed cameraman Aziz, 33, and soundman Yousuf, 26, on their way home from the network's Baghdad bureau, ABC News reported. ABC said Aziz was survived by a wife and two daughters, while Yousuf was set to marry his fiancée.

Nazar Abdulwahid al-Radhi, Aswat al-Iraq and Radio Free Iraq
May 30, 2007, Al-Amarah

Al-Radhi, 38, a correspondent for the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq and Radio Free Iraq, was gunned down in the southern city of Al-Amarah in Maysan province. Three men wearing white uniforms and riding in a pickup truck killed al-Radhi outside the Al-Arusa Hotel in the city's center, Saad Hassan, an eyewitness and reporter for the daily newspaper Al-Sabah, told Aswat al-Iraq.

Al-Radhi had finished covering a journalism workshop for Radio Free Iraq, according to a statement by its parent, the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Hassan told Aswat al-Iraq that al-Radhi was talking to a workshop leader when the gunmen began firing. RFE/RL said al-Radhi was shot four times and died at the scene; several other journalists were injured. Eyewitnesses said nearby Iraqi police did not intervene during the attack, Aswat al-Iraq reported.

RFE/RL reported that al-Radhi had received prior threats because of his work for a "foreign agency." Radio Free Iraq is the Arabic-language service of RFE/RL in Iraq, broadcasting from the network's headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic.

Mohammad Hilal Karji, Baghdad TV
June 6, 2007, Yusufiya

Karji, a correspondent for the Jordan-based satellite channel Baghdad TV, and his cousin were traveling to Baghdad for work when they were stopped at an Iraqi Army checkpoint in the town of Yusufiya, about 12 miles south of Baghdad, according to a source at the station who requested anonymity. The two were handed over to armed men who claimed to be security officers and who were in a car stationed by the checkpoint, the source said.

Karji and his cousin tried to escape, but only the cousin was able to flee, the source said.

The gunmen were suspected members of the Mahdi Army, a militia led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, according to the source at the station. The source said that Karji was shot in the head and that the body showed signs of torture.

Karji was believed to be killed because of his affiliation with Baghdad TV, where he worked for two years, the source told CPJ. The channel, owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, a large Sunni political group, had lost at least seven other employees since June 2005. The channel had been attacked by a truck laden with explosives in one incident and shelled by insurgents in another. The attacks forced the channel to relocate its main headquarters to Jordan.

Sahar Hussein Ali al-Haydari, National Iraqi News Agency and Aswat al-Iraq
June 7, 2007, Mosul

Al-Haydari, 44, was shopping in Mosul's Al-Hadbaa neighborhood when four unidentified gunmen got out of their vehicle, gunned her down, and fled the scene, taking her cell phone with them, local journalists told CPJ.

Earlier, she had been reporting news of a suicide attack on a police station in the nearby town of Al-Rabiya, according to the National Iraqi News Agency. When a police captain called to give her more information, the killers answered her phone, telling him, "She went to hell," according to a local journalist who spoke with the captain.

Al-Haydari had previously told CPJ that she had received many death threats. In early 2006, she was twice targeted for abduction; one attempt failed, and she was rescued the other time. In March 2006, al-Haydari told CPJ she had been shot, requiring surgery. In August 2006, gunmen killed her daughter's fiancé.

In her final e-mail to CPJ, on March 22, al-Haydari said her name was on a death list composed of journalists and police officers. It had been circulated throughout Mosul and posted on her house door. According to the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq, the list was issued by the "Emir of the Islamic State in Mosul," the local leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq.

Al-Haydari was a correspondent for the National Iraqi News Agency and Aswat al-Iraq, and a contributor to a number of other Iraqi media outlets. She also was a journalist trainee and correspondent for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting, an organization that trains local journalists in war coverage. She visited CPJ's offices in New York in late 2005, and CPJ helped relocate her husband and four children to Damascus, Syria, after she received death threats.

Aref Ali Filaih, Aswat al-Iraq
June 11, 2007, Al-Khalis

Filaih, correspondent for the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq, was killed by a roadside bomb while driving to an assignment south of Al-Khalis in Diyala province, Aswat al-Iraq reported. Filaih, 32, had worked as Aswat al-Iraq's correspondent in the violence-plagued province since December 2006, the news agency said.

Filaih Wuday Mijthab, Al-Sabah
June 17, 2007, Baghdad

Mijthab's body was found in Baghdad's main morgue four days after he was abducted by armed men. Mijthab, who worked with the government-run daily Al-Sabah, suffered bullet wounds to the head, the independent news agency Voices of Iraq reported. There was no claim of responsibility.

Insurgent and other armed groups have frequently targeted Al-Sabah and other state-run media because of their ties to the U.S.-supported Iraqi government. The New York Times reported that Mijthab could have been targeted by Shiite groups because of his past work for state-run media under the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Mijthab, like many of the newspaper's employees, had received numerous telephone threats while working at Al-Sabah, the paper reported.

Gunmen in three vehicles intercepted Mijthab, 53, as he was traveling to work in Baghdad's eastern Shiite neighborhood of Al-Habibiya. Mijthab, who was with his eldest son and a driver, was ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization. Mijthab was taken to an unknown location; his son and the driver were not seized.

Hamid Abed Sarhan, freelance
June 26, 2007, Baghdad

A car carrying several gunmen intercepted Sarhan, a freelance journalist and a public relations director at Baghdad's municipal secretariat, while he was driving home from work in Baghdad's Al-Saydiya neighborhood, a local journalist familiar with the case told CPJ. The gunmen shot the journalist and sped away.

Iraqi police were about 1,000 feet (300 meters) from the shooting and responded quickly to the scene, the source said. Police called Sarhan's sons, who identified the body.

Several CPJ sources familiar with the case said that Sarhan's work was the only plausible motive for his killing. Sarhan was a well-known journalist who worked as a managing editor at the Iraqi News Agency until the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, according to CPJ sources. Since then, he worked as managing editor for the independent daily Al-Mashriq and the now-defunct weekly Al-Wihda al-Wataniya. He was the editor-in-chief of the now-defunct weekly Iraqiyoun. In 2005, Sarhan became the managing editor of Baghdad's municipal secretariat weekly Sawt Baghdad. He later became a public relations director for the secretariat.

Sarhan freelanced for several national and international Arabic-language newspapers, including the Iraqi dailies Azzaman and Al-Mashriq, according to the CPJ source. He also appeared as an analyst on several programs for Iraqi satellite channels such as Al-Baghdadia and Al-Sharqiya. He regularly wrote articles and reports for Sawt Baghdad as part of his job for the secretariat, the source said.

Al-Saydiya, located in the Al-Rasheed district controlled by al-Qaeda in Iraq, was a hotbed of violence at the time.

Sarmad Hamdi Shaker, Baghdad TV
June 27, 2007, Baghdad

Shaker, 43, a correspondent for the satellite channel Baghdad TV, left his home in Baghdad's Al-Jamia neighborhood for work on the morning of June 27. He was waiting on the street for a friend to pick him up, a source at the station told CPJ, when a car carrying several gunmen came alongside and two armed occupants asked him to get in for questioning, the source said. His body was found on the street in the same neighborhood that afternoon, according to the source.

Shaker's wife and three children fled the neighborhood and moved north of Baghdad.

The source said the gunmen were suspected members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and that Shaker was killed because he worked for Baghdad TV, a moderate Sunni channel that has been repeatedly targeted by both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups, according to staff.

Shaker worked at Baghdad TV for two years, the source told CPJ. The channel, owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, a large Sunni political group, had lost at least seven other employees since June 2005.

Namir Noor-Eldeen, Reuters
July 12, 2007, Baghdad

Photographer Noor-Eldeen, 22, was killed in eastern Baghdad during what witnesses described as a U.S. helicopter attack. The strike claimed the lives of 10 other Iraqis in the Al-Amin al-Thaniyah neighborhood, Reuters reported, citing a preliminary Iraqi police report. The victims included Noor-Eldeen's driver and camera assistant, Saeed Chmagh.

Witnesses told Reuters that Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh arrived in the neighborhood about the time a U.S. helicopter fired on a minivan. Video footage showed that the minivan was destroyed, Reuters reported. Initial reports suggested that the air strike took place during clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents, but witnesses later said there were no clashes, according to Reuters.

The Multi-National Force-Iraq press desk in Baghdad did not respond to CPJ's telephone and e-mail inquiries seeking comment. Four other Reuters employees had been killed on assignment in Iraq, among the largest losses suffered by an international news organization in the conflict, CPJ research shows.

Khalid W. Hassan, The New York Times
July 13, 2007, Baghdad

Khalid W. Hassan, 23, a reporter and interpreter, was shot while driving to work in the south central Seiydia district, the newspaper reported. He had called the bureau to say that he was taking an alternative route because his usual way was blocked by a security checkpoint, the newspaper said. The Times reported that the journalist called his mother a half hour later to say, "I've been shot." The family notified the newspaper that Hassan later died.

An Iraqi of Palestinian descent, Hassan had worked for the Times' Baghdad bureau since fall 2003, the newspaper said. He was survived by his mother and four sisters. He was the second New York Times employee killed on assignment in Iraq, CPJ research shows. Times reporter Fakher Haider, 38, was killed in Basra in September 2005.

"Khalid was part of a large, sometimes unsung, community of Iraqi news-gatherers, translators, and support staff, who take enormous risks every day to help us comprehend their country's struggle and torment," Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, said in a statement.

Mustafa Gaimayani, Kirkuk al-Yawm and Hawal
Majeed Mohammed, Kirkuk al-Yawm and Hawal
July 16, 2007, Kirkuk

A triple bomb attack in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk killed at least 85 people, including editor Gaimayani and reporter Mohammed, and wounded more than 180 others.

A suicide attacker driving a truck packed with explosives detonated the vehicle near one of the offices of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in central Kirkuk, according to international news reports.

The blast damaged several adjacent buildings, including the offices of the Kirkuk Cultural and Social Association, killing Gaimayani, an editor for Kirkuk al-Yawm, and Mohammed, a sports reporter for the paper, Hashwan Dawoudi, deputy head of the association, told CPJ.

The association, which is funded by the Kurdistan Regional Government, publishes the weekly newspaper Kirkuk al-Yawm and the quarterly Kirkuk magazine, Dawoudi said.

At the time of the blast Mohammed and Gaimayani were preparing the weekly for publication, Dawoudi said. Seven other editors, including the editors-in-chief of both Kirkuk al-Yawm and Kirkuk were wounded in the explosion, he added.

Mohammed was also a correspondent and Gaimayani a writer for the Kurdish-language weekly Hawal, Dawoudi told CPJ. Seven years ago, Dawoudi established the Hawal Media Foundation, which published four newspapers, including Hawal and the Arabic-language weekly Al-Naba.

Gaimayani, who was also known as Mustafa Darwish, was in his mid-40s. He was a dual national with Swedish citizenship who moved with his family to Sweden in 1981 and returned to northern Iraq about four months earlier to work for the Hawal Media Foundation, Dawoudi told CPJ. Mohammed was in his mid-30s.

Adnan al-Safi, Al-Anwar
July 27, 2007, Baghdad

An unidentified gunman shot al-Safi, a correspondent for the Kuwait-based Al-Anwar satellite channel, outside the channel's offices in Baghdad's north-central neighborhood of Al-Etifiyah, according to Bassem al-Safi, a member of the reporter's extended family and a fellow journalist.

Adnan Al-Safi had just finished work and was waiting for a public van to take him home when the shooting occurred at 3 p.m. on July 25, the relative said. Al-Safi, shot in the head, was taken to a Baghdad hospital, where he died 48 hours later.

Bassem al-Safi told CPJ that the journalist appeared to be targeted; bystanders were uninjured. He told the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization, that an armed group had been seen in the station's neighborhood. Al-Anwar is a moderate Shiite satellite channel focusing on Islamic culture and issues.

Adnan al-Safi founded and headed the Islamic Press Union in 2005, which held workshops and lectures on television, radio, and print journalism, said the relative, a fellow member of the union. The victim, who was in his late 30s, also worked for radio station Sawt al-Iraq and served as an adviser in the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory. He was survived by a wife and three children.

Amer Malallah al-Rashidi, Al-Mosuliya
September 3, 2007, Mosul

Al-Rashidi, 42, a camera operator for the private satellite channel Al-Mosuliya, left a relative's house in Mosul's eastern Al-Jazair neighborhood in the evening to catch a taxi when gunmen in a car opened fire, a source at the station told CPJ. The source said that after al-Rashidi fell to the ground, one of the gunmen got out of the car and shot him at close range.

The source, who asked not to be identified, believed that al-Rashidi was targeted because he was a journalist. Al-Rashidi was a well-known camera operator in Mosul, a place where armed groups have frequently targeted journalists. Al-Rashidi did not report receiving death threats prior to the shooting, the source told CPJ.

Before joining Al-Mosuliya, al-Rashidi worked for the state-run Al-Iraqiya channel, according to the source at the station. Al-Mosuliya was established about a year earlier to cover news in Nineveh province.

Muhannad Ghanem Ahmad al-Obaidi, Dar al-Salam
September 20, 2007, Mosul

Gunmen believed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq killed al-Obaidi, 25, a presenter and producer for the Iraqi Islamic Party-owned radio Dar al-Salam, according to a source at the station. Al-Obaidi was heading home when a car intercepted him and a gunman emerged, the source said.

Police Brig. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri told the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq that "the gunmen opened fire on the journalist, near Thiyab al-Iraqi Mosque in al-Moharibeen area." The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, a local press freedom organization, reported that al-Obaidi resisted the gunmen when they attempted to abduct him, which led to his killing.

Al-Obaidi worked on social programs for Dar al-Salam, al-Jubouri said, adding that he was also a preacher at Mosul's Bazwayah Mosque, Aswat al-Iraq reported.

The source told CPJ that Dar al-Salam had received prior threats. Dar al-Salam and Baghdad TV, both owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, a large Sunni political group, have been regularly targeted by insurgents. In April, a suicide attacker driving a garbage truck packed with explosives blew up the front of the building that houses Baghdad TV and Dar al-Salam in Baghdad.

Salih Saif Aldin, The Washington Post
October 14, 2007, Baghdad

Saif Aldin, 32, was killed at close range by a single gunshot to the head while photographing fire-damaged houses on a street in Baghdad's southern neighborhood of Al-Saydiya, the Post reported. Saif Aldin was on assignment interviewing residents about sectarian violence raging between Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents in the neighborhood, long a center of violence, the newspaper said. The Post reported that a man used Saif Aldin's cell phone to inform an employee at the paper that the journalist was killed.

Post Baghdad Bureau Chief Sudarsan Raghavan told CPJ that it was murky as to who shot Saif Aldin and why. Some residents suspected that the Iraqi Army, some of whose members were loyal to the Mahdi Army, a militia led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was responsible for the slaying, the Post reported. Iraqi police said they suspected Sunni gunmen from the Awakening Council, a group consisting of Sunni tribes working alongside U.S. forces, the Post said.

Saif Aldin, who wrote under the pseudonym Salih Dehema for security purposes, began his journalism career as a reporter for the weekly Al-Iraq al-Yawm in Tikrit, and joined the Post in January 2004 as a stringer, the newspaper said. Saif Aldin had been arrested, beaten, and threatened while carrying out his assignments.

Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of the Post, called Saif Aldin a "brave and valuable reporter who contributed much to our coverage of Iraq." Saif Aldin was known for his tenacity and his willingness to take assignments that put him in harm's way, the Post reported.

Shehab Mohammad al-Hiti, Baghdad al-Youm
October 28, 2007, Baghdad

Al-Hiti, 27, an editor for the fledgling weekly Baghdad al-Youm, was last seen leaving his home in Baghdad's western neighborhood of Al-Jamia to go to the paper's offices around midday, a source at the paper told CPJ. Iraqi security forces found the journalist's body later that afternoon in Baghdad's northeastern Ur neighborhood and transported it to Baghdad's Al-Tib al-Adli Hospital morgue, the source said.

A local journalist told CPJ that Ur neighborhood is adjacent to Baghdad's Sadr City, controlled by the Mahdi Army, led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The CPJ source said that he was not aware of any prior death threats against the journalist. Baghdad al-Youm had been publishing for only three weeks.

Journalists killed in 2007 in Iraq (motive unconfirmed)

Hussein al-Jabouri, As-Saffir
March 16, 2007, Baghdad

Al-Jabouri, editor-in-chief of As-Saffir, was shot when he failed to stop his car at an Iraqi security checkpoint in Baghdad's Al-Dora neighborhood on March 7, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, a local press freedom group. The group, citing his family, said al-Jabouri was driving home when Iraqi security officers opened fire.

A CPJ source said that the security officers transferred al-Jabouri to a hospital immediately afterward. His treatment continued in Amman, Jordan, but he died later that month, the source said.

Ali Khalil, Azzaman
May 20, 2007, Baghdad

Gunmen abducted and killed Khalil, 22, an editor for the Iraqi daily Azzaman, in Baghdad's southern Shurta Raba neighborhood, according to the paper and CPJ sources.

Around midday, Khalil left his in-laws' home with his wife, their newborn baby, and her father when gunmen in two vehicles stopped the journalist's car, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization. The gunmen ordered the passengers out, seized the car, and kidnapped Khalil. Iraqi police discovered his body three hours after the abduction in the same neighborhood, according to Azzaman and CPJ sources.

Khalil was shot multiple times in the head and back, and he appeared to have been beaten, the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said. CPJ was unable to determine if he was killed because of his journalism.

Khalil's last news item focused on a call by some parliamentarians for the government-sanctioned assassination of militants, the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory reported. Azzaman is operated by the Azzaman Group, which is owned by Iraqi media tycoon Saad al-Bazzaz, head of radio and television under Saddam Hussein until 1992. The paper was critical of the Iraqi government.

Abdul Rahman al-Issawi, National Iraqi News Agency
May 28, 2007, Amiriyat al-Fallujah

Gunmen raided the home of al-Issawi, a reporter for the online National Iraqi News Agency, in Amiriyat al-Fallujah, near the Iraqi city of Fallujah in Anbar province, a CPJ source said. The assailants took the journalist, his brother, and his father to a nearby location and killed them. An editor at the news agency told CPJ that members of al-Issawi's family heard the shooting and engaged the gunmen. Five other members of the family were killed in the clash, he said.

The source told CPJ that al-Issawi worked for the National Iraqi News Agency for more than a year and had freelanced for several Iraqi publications.

Mahmoud Hassib al-Qassab, Al-Hawadith
May 28, 2007, Kirkuk

Al-Qassab, editor-in-chief of the defunct bilingual weekly Al-Hawadith, was gunned down near his home in the center of Kirkuk, local journalists told CPJ. Al-Qassab, who also headed the Turkmen Salvation Movement, was returning from his political party's office when he was shot.

CPJ sources said they believed his murder was related to his political work rather than his journalism.

Saif Fakhry, Associated Press Television News
May 31, 2007, Baghdad

Associated Press Television News cameraman Fakhry, 26, was shot as he was heading to a mosque near his home in Baghdad's western neighborhood of Al-Aamariyah, The Associated Press reported. He had taken the day off to spend time with his pregnant wife, the news agency said.

Al-Aamariyah had been the site of intense fighting between al-Qaeda gunmen and Sunni extremist militants. It was unclear whether Fakhry was killed in crossfire or if he was targeted, according to the AP.

Jawad al-Daami, Al-Baghdadia
September 23, 2007, Baghdad

Several gunmen in a car shot al-Daami, 40, a producer for the independent Cairo-based satellite channel Al-Baghdadia, in Baghdad's southwestern neighborhood of Al-Qadissiya at around 4 p.m., a source at the channel told CPJ. The source said that al-Daami was heading home southwest of Baghdad. He added that al-Daami, a well-known poet, had gone to Baghdad to attend a cultural conference on his day off from work.

The motive for the killing was unclear, but the crime scene was in a neighborhood occupied by several militia groups known to target journalists, according to local reporters.

The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization, quoted Al-Baghdadia sources as saying that al-Daami met with several colleagues earlier that day in Baghdad's Al-Mansour neighborhood to plan a young people's cultural forum. Al-Daami worked on cultural and social programs for Al-Baghdadia, writing and researching in his role as a line producer.

Ali Shafeya al-Moussawi, Alive in Baghdad
December 15, 2007, Baghdad

Al-Moussawi, a correspondent for the video-based news Web site Alive in Baghdad, was found shot to death in his home in the Al-Habibiya neighborhood of Baghdad, the Web site reported. Al-Moussawi was shot 31 times, the Web site said, citing a coroner's report.

Alive in Baghdad reported that al-Moussawi's body was found hours after Iraqi National Guard forces had raided the street where the reporter resides. The Web site said witnesses heard gunfire and that a relative was unable to reach al-Moussawi by phone during the raid.

Brian Conley, Alive in Baghdad's founder and director, said the circumstances and motive for al-Moussawi's murder were unclear. He said Alive in Baghdad was looking into a threat al-Moussawi received the previous week. The reporter had been working on a report about an Iraqi militia group.

Media workers killed in 2007 in Iraq

Nabras Mohammed Hadi, Iraq Media Network
Azhar Abdullah al-Maliki, Iraq Media Network
Sabah Salman, Iraq Media Network
February 7, 2007, Baghdad

Three guards working for the state-run Iraq Media Network were killed by guards employed by Blackwater Worldwide, a U.S. private security firm, The Washington Post reported.

Blackwater guards escorting an American diplomat to the Iraqi Justice Ministry took positions on the roof of the building, according to the Post. The Iraq Media Network compound, guarded by an Iraqi security team, was adjacent to the ministry at a distance of about 450 feet. An argument ensued between the Iraqi guards and some civilians who wanted to park a car between the ministry and the media compound, the Post said. When Hadi, 23, a guard stationed on a balcony in the compound, stood up with his weapon and shouted at the people on the ground, he was shot by a Blackwater sniper, the paper reported.

When colleagues tried to retrieve Hadi from the balcony, the sniper shot another guard, al-Maliki, 31, in the neck, forcing the others to retreat, the paper reported. An Iraqi army unit in charge of the area responded to the scene and withdrew the bodies of both guards. Hadi died at the scene, while al-Maliki succumbed to his wounds a few hours later at a nearby hospital. Guards discovered Salman, 40, charged with maintaining small arms, lying dead on the same balcony more than an hour after the sniper had fired his first shot, the Post said.

Guards from both the Iraq Media Network and the Justice Ministry, along with the Iraqi army commander and several network officials, said the slain guards did not fire their weapons or provoke the shooting. The Justice Ministry, the Interior Ministry, Iraqi police, and the Iraq Media Network found Blackwater responsible for the incident, the paper reported.

The security firm denied initiating the shooting, saying its employees returned fire after coming under threat.

Hussein Nizar, Baghdad TV
April 6, 2007, Baghdad

A garbage truck packed with explosives detonated near the main entrance of Baghdad TV's offices on April 5, killing Deputy Director Thaer Ahmad Jaber. Nizar, a guard, died from his injuries the following day. Eleven other employees were injured in the attack, according to CPJ sources.

The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization, reported that the attackers fired at the station's guards, clearing the way for the truck. The front of the building, which houses the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party-owned Baghdad TV and Radio Dar al-Salam, was destroyed along with several station and employee cars, according to news reports. The station's main transmission equipment was damaged, briefly interrupting its broadcast.

Adel al-Badri, Radio Dijla
May 3, 2007, Baghdad

Dozens of heavily armed gunmen stormed the independent Radio Dijla station in Baghdad's Al-Jamia district, killing guard al-Badri and injuring two other guards, Karim Yousef, acting director-general, told CPJ.

Around 2:30 p.m., dozens of masked gunmen attacked Radio Dijla with missiles and heavy machine guns, destroying equipment, and knocking the station off the air, Yousef said. The gunmen seized the first floor of the two-story building, causing Radio Dijla's 25 employees to flee to the second floor and fight off the attack, he said.

The assailants set off an explosive on the first floor, destroying the station's broadcast equipment, Yousef said. The gunmen fled shortly before Iraqi security forces arrived. Yousef told CPJ he called the security forces 10 minutes into the attack; his staff, he said, fought the gunmen for more than 30 minutes before they were rescued. The damage, Yousef said, was so extensive that the station could not immediately return to the air.

Radio Dijla is considered an independent news outlet. "We don't belong to ... any political or sectarian sides and we accept all Iraqi voices," Yousef said. "We asked the government several times to protect the road, to protect the station, but unfortunately to no avail."

Imad Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaid, Al-Raad
May 9, 2007, outside Kirkuk

Gunmen riding in an Opel without a license plate intercepted a vehicle carrying Raad Mutashar, 43, owner and director of a media company, and driver al-Obaid on a road southwest of Kirkuk at around 2 p.m., a company source told CPJ. The source said the gunmen killed Mutashar and al-Obaid, along with passengers Nibras Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaid and Aqil Abdul-Qadir.

Mutashar's company, Al-Raad, published a weekly newspaper, Al-Iraq Ghadan, and a related institute operated a news agency and a media educational center. A CPJ source said Mutashar was a prominent writer, poet, and journalist who started the company four years earlier. Imad Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaid and Nibras Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaid were Mutashar's brothers-in-law.

Ali Watan Rozouk al-Hassani, Al-Samawah
July 6, 2007, Al-Samawah

Gunmen shot al-Hassani, an administrative assistant and security guard for the local television station Al-Samawah, during violent clashes in Al-Samawah, capital of southern Al-Muthanna province, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, a local press freedom organization. Al-Hassani was driving to work when he was shot in the head.

Al-Samawah's building had been subjected to heavy shelling that had interrupted its broadcasts, station chief Saeed al-Badri told the observatory. Al-Hassani had cut a vacation short to help the station get back on the air, al-Badri said. A police spokesman told the observatory that the shooting took place about 330 feet (100 meters) from the television station.

Saeed Chmagh, Reuters
July 12, 2007, Baghdad

Driver and camera assistant Chmagh was killed along with photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen in eastern Baghdad during what witnesses described as a U.S. helicopter attack. The strike claimed the lives of 10 other Iraqis in the Al-Amin al-Thaniyah neighborhood, Reuters reported, citing a preliminary Iraqi police report.

Witnesses told Reuters that Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh arrived in the neighborhood about the time a U.S. helicopter fired on a minivan. Video footage showed that the minivan was destroyed, Reuters reported. Initial reports suggested that the air strike took place during clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents, but witnesses later said there were no clashes, according to Reuters.

The Multi-National Force-Iraq press desk in Baghdad did not respond to CPJ's telephone and e-mail inquiries seeking comment.

Ziad Tarek al-Dibo, Al-Watan
Jassem Mohammad Nofan, Al-Watan
Khaled Mohammad Nofan, Al-Watan
October 14, 2007, southwest of Kirkuk

Gunmen ambushed five guards for the Tikrit-based weekly Al-Watan on the road between Kirkuk and Al-Riyadh in Iraq's northern At-Tamim province on the evening of October 14, according to CPJ sources and news reports. A local journalist identified the three slain guards as Ziad Tarek al-Dibo, Jassem Mohammad Nofan, and Khaled Mohammad Nofan, and the two injured as Alal al-Ghariri and Mohammad Shaker al-Samraee.

Al-Watan's deputy chief editor, Waqas al-Dowaini, told the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, a local press freedom organization, that the guards were returning to Tikrit, northwest of Baghdad, after escorting the paper's chairman, Hatem Mawloud Mokhles, to Arbil. The gunmen attacked near Houd 18 village, southwest of Kirkuk. Al-Dowaini told the observatory that the victims were employed as guards for the paper and as personal guards for Mokhles, secretary-general of the Iraqi National Movement political party.

Abdullah [full name unavailable] freelance
October 22, 2007, Baghdad

Unidentified kidnappers killed the driver for Radio Free Iraq correspondent Jumana al-Obaidi when they seized the reporter on her way to a scheduled assignment at the Iraqi Environment Ministry. The radio service, which said the driver was hired directly by the reporter, identified the victim only as Abdullah.

Al-Obaidi worked for Radio Free Iraq, the Arabic language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcasts to Iraq from RFE/RL headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic.

The radio service said Iraqi police found the driver's body in Baghdad's Al-Shaab neighborhood shortly after the abduction. The radio service said he was in his late 20s and was survived by a wife.

RFE/RL reported that the journalist was freed on November 4. It did not reveal details about her release or the identity of her captors.

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