Iraqi journalist shot dead in northern Iraq

[Barrett808]

Source: Xinhua

BAGHDAD, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi police Tuesday said gunmen have shot dead a Kurdish journalist working for a local magazine in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad.

Unknown armed men gunned down Soran Mama Hama, 23, reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, on Monday night in front of his house in the al-Shorja district in central Kirkuk, a source from the city police told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Ziyad al-Ajili, head of the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), an Iraqi media watchdog, condemned Hama's assassination and urged the Iraqi security forces to capture the murderers.

"The first step to halt the assassinations against journalists is to capture those culprits," Ajili told reporters Tuesday.

Statistics of the Iraqi Union of Journalists showed that over 275 of its members and media workers have been killed since the U.S.-led Iraq war in 2003.

Read more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/22/content_8749309.htm