Reuters AlertNet Lite - Gunmen storm Iraqi TV station, kill 11

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Gunmen storm Iraqi TV station, kill 11

12 Oct 2006 16:13:47 GMT
Source: Reuters

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Relatives claim the body of an employee of Shaabiya satellite television channel from the al-Kindi hospital morgue in Baghdad October 12, 2006. Gunmen stormed the offices of the new satellite channel in Baghdad on Thursday and killed 11 employees in the biggest attack yet on media in Iraq.
REUTERS/KAREEM RAHEEM

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(Adds Committee to Protect Journalists)

By Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Gunmen stormed a television station in Baghdad on Thursday and shot dead 11 staff in the biggest attack yet on media in Iraq.

Iraqi media organisations, funded by religious or political groups, are frequent targets for militant groups as attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents and sectarian death squads continue to convulse the country, killing an estimated 100 people a day.

Shaabiya satellite channel, owned by a small secular political party, has not yet begun broadcasting. Its executive manager, Hassan Kamil, stressed it had no political agenda and that the staff had been a mix of Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurds.

Kamil said gunmen driving at least five four-wheel drive vehicles raided the station's office in eastern Zayouna district at 7 a.m., killing guards, technicians and administrative staff.

"Some of them were wearing police uniforms and others civilian clothing. All were masked," he told Reuters.

Kamil said the staff had been staying overnight in the station. Most were shot as they lay sleeping in their beds, while one was shot in the bathroom. Only two employees survived the attack, one of whom was severely wounded, he said.

A Reuters reporter saw blood spattered on furniture and on the floor in the station's reception area.

Shaabiya is owned by the National Justice and Progress Party, which contested the last elections but failed to win any seats. The party's leader, Abdul-Rahim al-Nasrallah, also head of the station's board of directors, was among the dead.

"This came very suddenly. We had not had any threats previously," Kamil said, when asked why he thought the station, which has so far only done test broadcasts of patriotic songs, had been attacked.

SPIKE IN VIOLENCE

"It's a horrible reminder of why this remains the most dangerous assignment in the world right now for journalists, especially local reporters," Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement on Thursday.

Reporters Without Borders says 109 local and foreign journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Most of the Iraqi journalists killed to date have been targeted in bomb attacks or shot dead, so Thursday's raid on Shaabiya's offices was unusual.

Until Thursday, the biggest single attack on a media organisation was the car bombing in 2004 on the Baghdad offices of Dubai-based Arabiya television, which killed seven.

The shootings come as violence continues largely unchecked in the city, despite a major security crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi troops aimed at curbing killings.

U.S. military spokesman Major General Caldwell said there had been a spike in violence in Baghdad since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan nearly three weeks ago, with an average of 36 attacks a day.

"We're assuming it's going to get worse before it gets better," he said. Militants were "punching back hard" in an attempt to show the government cannot maintain security.

"We expect violence to increase until the end of Ramadan," he said, repeating a similar prediction he made a week ago.

A roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad's Bab al-Sharji district on Thursday morning, police said. When police and rescue services arrived on the scene a car bomb exploded. Police said the blasts killed five people and wounded 10.

Two bombs also exploded near a petrol station in the northern Qahira district, killing three people and wounding 15, among them policemen. Twelve people were slain in shootings in the volatile town of Baquba north of Baghdad.

The violence came a day after U.S. and Iraqi researchers published figures that suggested 655,000 Iraqis had died from the war. But U.S. President George W. Bush and the Iraqi government said the toll was not credible.

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Last updated:Thu Oct 12 16:18:32 2006