* Three journalists and driver killed in Mosul * Police say five suspects captured * Eight other people killed in bomb attacks in Iraq By Waleed Ibrahim BAGHDAD, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped and shot dead three Iraqi journalists from Iraq's Sharqiya TV station along with their driver in the volatile northern city of Mosul on Saturday, the station and police said. It was one of the single deadliest militant attacks on journalists in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The shootings add to a violent two days in which dozens have been killed in gun and bomb attacks mainly in northern Iraq. They underscore the security challenges the government still faces even after violence has fallen to lows not seen since early 2004. Two roadside bombs killed at least eight people in Baghdad and Diyala province northeast of the capital on Saturday. Late on Friday, a car bomb apparently targeting people on the streets breaking their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan killed 30 people and wounded 47 in Dujail in northern Salahuddin province. "Today at noon, armed people kidnapped and killed four of our workers," Sharqiya, an independent channel based in Dubai and known for its criticism of the Iraqi government, said in a statement read by one of its presenters. It said the dead were its chief Mosul correspondent Musab Mahmoud al-Azawi, two cameramen and a driver. "The staff of this channel, whose hearts are full of mourning today, confirm our determination to go ahead with its independent work," the statement said. Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul Sattar, the spokesman for Iraqi military operations in Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province, said police had arrested five suspects in connection with the attack. "Two of them were riding in a car fitting the description given by witnesses of the kidnapping," he said. "The police found a gun with the suspects. The other three were detained in a near-by district. We established a team to investigate." The TV crew went missing in the early hours and police said they recovered their bodies bearing gunshot wounds on the western side of Mosul. They had been filming a programme on charity for the poor during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. One of the crew later told Reuters her colleagues were snatched from outside a house where they were filming. She escaped. FEAR IN MOSUL Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups still roam Mosul, which, like some other northern areas, is struggling to shake off an insurgency as the rest of Iraq enjoys better security. An Iraqi-led offensive that began in Nineveh in May cut attacks in the province to 30 per week by July, from 130 before the operation, but they have crept back up to 60-70 per week, U.S. military officials say. Some residents fear insurgents fled the city when the operation started, only to return later. The Nineveh crackdown was among a series of military offensives by U.S. and Iraqi forces that have significantly weakened al Qaeda, but they and other militant groups have shown they can still carry out lethal attacks. Iraq is still the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, according to the New York-based watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Most reporters killed have been Iraqi nationals, who are often targeted because of their work. Around 130 reporters and 50 media assistants have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion, CPJ says. It also says Iraq has the worst record for failing to solve murders of journalists, with around 80 unsolved killings. "Since there is no real concern from the government against those who target and kill journalists, these crimes are going to continue," Ibrahim al-Saraj, head of the Iraqi Journalists Rights' Defence Association told Reuters. But the commander of security operations in Nineveh, Major-General Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, speaking on Sharqiya, said journalists should inform security forces when they are present in a dangerous area "so we can take the procedures which allow them to work safely." (Additional reporting by Aws Qusay) (Writing by Tim Cocks; editing by Keith Weir)
Residents hold their children who are diagnosed with cholera in a hospital in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad September 12, 2008. Four cholera cases have been diagnosed in ...
