Baghdad - An Iraqi reporter was seriously injured Wednesday
in a landmine explosion in east Baghdad, according to the Iraqi
Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), while another was injured by
a sniper in the southern city of Basra.
Haitham Ibrahim, a cameraman working for Iraqi al-Dayar satellite
channel, had his leg amputated after suffering serious injuries in a
landmine explosion in Talabiyah district in east Baghdad, JFO said in
a statement posted on its website.
A channel official, Emad al-Abadi, said the cameraman - injured
while shooting in the restive area - was in a critical condition in a
hospital in Sadr City.
Ibrahim is not receiving proper care in the hospital, which has
been short of medical supplies due to a week-long blockade of Sadr
City by US and Iraqi troops, al-Abdai said.
The Iraqi press group appealed to the authorities to move Ibrahim
to a better-equipped hospital.
Sadr City, a stronghold of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia of cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr, has been the scene of heavy fighting between Iraqi
and US troops and the militia.
At least 32 journalists have been killed on scenes of blasts since
the US-led war on Iraq in 2003, according to JFO estimates.
In Basra, another journalist, Mazen Tayyar, was lightly injured in
the leg by a sniper in Qibla, eight kilometers west of the city, the
Voices of Iraq news agency cited a local journalist as saying.
Tayyar is the correspondent of the Washington-based al-Hurra
television funded by the US State Department.
The journalist was accompanying the motorcade of senior officials
of Iraqi Ministry of Defence, including the commander of operations
in Basra.
No reports of casualties were immediately available.
Oil-rich Basra has been the scene of a major offensive, which was
launched on March 25 by government troops backed by US and British
forces to loosen the grip of militias and gangs over the Shiite-
dominated city.
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