Two arrests made in the murder of Al-Iraqiya's director

Two people have been arrested in Abu Ghraib, 20 km west of Baghdad, for the 11 March murder of Al-Iraqiya director Amjad Hameed Hassan and his driver Anwar Turki. The arrests follow the appearance of a message from the Mujahideen Consultative Council on its website claiming responsibility for the killings. Its authenticity could not be confirmed. Dominated by the Iraqi wing of Al-Qaeda, the MCC said in the message: “Your brothers in the military wing of the Mujahideen Council murdered Amjad Hameed Hassan, the director of Al-Iraqiya ... We consider this TV station to be the mouthpiece of the government ... always ready to broadcast lies about jihad and the mujahideen to please the crusaders.” Hassan and his driver were gunned down in the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Amariyah as he was going to work, according to interior ministry sources and Al-Iraqiya. A total of 85 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11.03.2006 Iraqi TV journalist killed from station that has lost 11 reporters since fighting began Reporters Without Borders deplored the murder in Baghdad today of Amjad Hameed, of the local TV station Al-Iraqiya, its 11th journalist to die since fighting began three years ago and the second TV reporter to be killed in Iraq in the past week. He had just left his home in central Baghdad on his way to work when he was shot dead by armed men who blocked his car. His driver, Anwar Turky, was seriously wounded. Reporters Without Borders expressed condolences to his family (he was married with three children). It expressed concern at the recent wave of violence against journalists and called on the Iraqi authorities to make every effort to guarantee their security. Another reporter, Munsuf Abdallah al-Khaldi, of Baghdad TV, was murdered on 7 March on the road between Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul. Al-Iraqiya is part of the Iraqi Media Network group, which is close to the ruling Shiite parties, and has been the media outlet hardest-hit in the Iraq fighting. 84 journalists have been killed in the three years since the war began. Only 63 were killed during the entire 20 years (1955-75) of the Vietnam War.