Freelance journalist found dead 13 days after being abducted

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the murder of Iraqi freelance journalist Abdelmajid Ismael Khalil and urged the police to carry out a proper investigation. Khalil, who worked for several national dailies, was kidnapped on 18 October in the east Baghdad neighbourhood of Jamila by gunmen who surrounded his car and forced him to go with them. Local police found his body 13 days later in the same neighbourhood. He was the 127th journalist to be killed in Iraq since the start of the war. He was also the 52nd journalist to be kidnapped. Four journalists are still being held by their abductors.