Iraqi TV Crew Killed by Gunmen
‘A four-member crew of the Iraqi television channel Al-Sharqiyah was kidnapped by gunmen and later killed in northern Iraq on Saturday, the channel announced.’
‘Iraqi security officials said the crew was kidnapped in the Al-Zangili area of northern Iraq’s restive city of Mosul as they were on assignment for the popular programme Futurqum Alena (Dinner On Us),’ the Associated Press Reported.
They added that the crew’s bodies were later found near Al-Zangili. They were ‘riddled with bullets.’
Al-Sharqiyah said the crew ‘of the channel’s Mosul bureau chief, Musab al-Azzawi, two cameramen, and a driver.’
The murder of the crew was not the first such murder of journalists in Iraq. They are regularly targeted by militiamen, especially if they are considered to be supportive of the Iraqi central government and the allied forces occupying Iraq.
Even if that is not the case, journalists were often kidnappened and killed in order to draw attention to the ‘Jihad’ extremists declared against the American presence in Iraq. In clear proof of the barbarity of these extremists, some of the journalists - Westerners especially - were beheaded. Their death was recorded on video, which was later sent to Al Jazeera for airing. By doing this, extremists hoped to destroy the will and strength of Americans to carry on fighting.
