Attacks on journalists continue in Baghdad in worrisome sign of new campaign

Bodies of employees of Shaabiya satellite television channel lie outside al-Kindi hospital morgue in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — Gunmen killed a radio journalist and kidnapped a television reporter, Iraqi police said Saturday, continuing a spate of attacks that has killed 14 media employees in recent weeks.

Hussam Ahmed, a correspondent for the independent TV station Nahrain, was forced from his car at gunpoint Saturday, police said. The gunmen took him away in another car. There has been no communication from the kidnappers.

Police also reported that another journalist, announcer Raid Qais of Voice of Iraq radio, was shot while driving to work in the Dora neighborhood of south Baghdad on Friday. Qais died instantly, police said.

Three other journalists recently have been kidnapped or killed in roadside attacks, and 11 employees of a television station were killed by gunmen Thursday. A convoy of armed men, some wearing police uniforms, invaded the Al Shaabiya satellite television station and opened fire at executives, technicians and guards. General manager Abdul Raheem Nasrallah was among those killed.

Read the rest at the LA Times

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