Iraq: Gunmen stormed a television station in Baghdad yesterday and shot dead 11 staff in the biggest attack yet on media in Iraq.
Iraqi media organisations that are 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, Shia and Kurds.
Mr Kamil said gunmen driving at least five four-wheel-drive vehicles raided the station's office in eastern Zayouna district at 7am, killing guards, technicians and administrative staff.
"Some of them were wearing police uniforms and others civilian clothing. All were masked," he said.
Mr 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.
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," Mr Kamil said, when asked why he thought the station, which has so far only done test broadcasts of patriotic songs, had been attacked.
"It's a horrible reminder of why this remains the most dangerous assignment in the world right now for journalists, especially local reporters," said Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists in a statement yesterday.
Reporters Without Borders says 109 local and foreign journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the US 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 yesterday's raid on Shaabiya's offices was unusual.
Until yesterday, 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.
- (Reuters)