Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq     

    BAGHDAD, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb detonated near the vehicle of an Iraqi television crew in Salahudin province in north of Baghdad, their television reported on Wednesday.

    Alaa Abdul Kareem al-Fartousi, a cameraman for the al-Furat television, was killed by the blast near the town of Balad on Tuesday, while his deputy cameraman and a female journalist were seriously wounded, the television said.

    Fartousi, 29, a father of two daughters, and his crew were heading to Samarra, 120 km north of Baghdad, to make a report about the second anniversary of bombing the al-Askari Shiite shrine on Feb. 22, the channel said.

    The Furat television, is affiliated with the Shiite leading party, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), led by the powerful cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.

    Some 230 Iraqi media workers have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to the count by Baghdad-based Iraqi Journalists' Union.

    The Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters without Borders, has described the dangers that face journalists in Iraq since the outbreak of the Iraq war as the highest for the media since World War II.