Baghdad - In yet another attack on the Iraqi press, gunmen
shot down prominent journalist Mohan al-Zaher near his home in
western Baghdad, the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate said Sunday.
The syndicate said the gunmen had attempted to kidnap the
journalist but when he resisted he was shot. Al-Zaher died instantly.
Al-Zaher studied law and journalism and worked as a writer and
columnist in several regional and local newspapers. Before his death,
he worked at al-Mashreq, a daily independent newspaper.
Al-Zaher's column 'In the Goal: Democracy the Indian way,' which
appeared in the newspaper's Sunday issue, criticized the amount of
funds allocated by the Iraqi ministers council to those fully
displaced from certain areas in Iraq, adding that the number of
families who are being relocated across Iraq have reached more than
6,000.
The column clearly criticized government spending, questioning at
the end 'if this is the democracy that we (Iraqis) dreamt of.'
The same newspaper had earlier featured articles that questioned
the American policies in Iraq.
The latest figures show that at least 170 journalists and media
workers have been killed in violence since the US-led invasion in
2003.
Only on Saturday, an Iraqi journalist who disappeared last week
was found dead in Baghdad, according to a report by Voices of Iraq
news agency.
The agency quoted the Iraqi Association for Defending Journalists'
Rights which identified the journalist as Jamal al-Zubaidi, the
managing editor of Baghdad's al-Safir (the ambassador) newspaper. He
was apparently shot in the head.
According to Voices of Iraq, the editor-in-chief of al-Safir was
previously targeted by gunmen and was severely wounded.
Also in the Jamaa district, where al-Zaher was killed, Tamer
Sultan, an Iraqi defence ministry advisor was freed by Iraqi army
forces after he was earlier captured by militants from the same area,
said a military spokesman Sunday.
The advisor, was forcefully taken from his home of western Baghdad
on Saturday.
According to Qassem Atta, the military spokesman, army forces
sealed off the area where he was seized, and then managed to find the
advisor based on intelligence reports that they had acquired.
The forces raided the house where Sultan was being held and
exchanged fire with a group of militants, freeing the advisor and
capturing four of the militants, Atta said.
Meanwhile, a radical Iraqi movement that calls itself The Sunni
Islamic State of Iraq issued an online statement saying that it had
kidnapped two groups of policemen and not one.
The new announcement comes after the bodies of 14 policemen
apparently kidnapped by the same group in retaliation for an alleged
rape were found late Friday near Baquba, north of Baghdad. The group
is linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq.
Iraqi authorities had said the group captured a total of 14 Iraqi
Interior Ministry employees in Diyali, contradicting the Sunni
group's online statement that said that 18 were captured.
On Sunday, the radical group however said they kidnapped two
groups of policemen, not only the group of 14 employees that the
authorities are referring to, and 'we confirm that both groups
received God's verdict.'
The group tagged the killings 'the retaliatory holy battle.'
Separately, a civilian was killed and three people were wounded
when an explosive devise was detonated in a district in central
Baghdad.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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