Middle East News
Iraqi journalist killed in Baghdad (2nd Lead)
By DPA
Mar 4, 2007, 12:39 GMT

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.