An Iraqi soldier mans a machinegun at a checkpoint in Baghdad June 5, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery >>>
MOSUL, Iraq, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen on Thursday shot dead a
female journalist working for an independent Iraqi news agency in Mosul, some
400 km north of Baghdad, a provincial police source said.
"Gunmen attacked Sahar al-Haidari, a female
journalist, in front of her house in the al-Hadbaa neighborhood in Mosul and
showered her with bullets," the source from Nineveh province told Xinhua by
telephone.
The source said the victim was working under false
names to avoid gunman attacks. But her name was listed as wanted along with
other journalists for the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaida-linked
group.
Haidari, 45, is a mother of three girls and working
for the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Last week, Nezar Abdul Wahid al-Radi, another
journalist for the VOI, was also killed by gunmen in the southern Missan
province.
Media advocate Reporters Without Borders said that at
least 182 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the
start of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
It has called for the establishment of a special police unit to investigate media killings in Iraq after a record 12 journalists were slain in May.
A girl looks from behind the glass window of a bus bound for Syria, in Al-Salhiyah bus station in Baghdad, June 7, 2007. Hundreds of Iraqis leave Baghdad daily by travelling to Syria on buses to avoid the sectarian violence, a manager in the bus station said. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery >>>
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