Two Japanese journalists and their Iraqi interpreter killed

Two Japanese freelance journalists, Shinsuke Hashida, 61, and his nephew Kotaro Ogawa, 33, and their Iraqi interpreter were killed late yesterday in an attack on the road between Mahmoudiya and Latifiya, 30 km south of Baghdad. Hashida was an experienced war correspondent. They had just left the Japanese military base in the town of Samawa, south of Baghdad, and were heading towards the capital when their vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by an armed group. The vehicle caught fired and exploded. Only the driver, who was injured, managed to get out in time. The director of the hospital in Mahmoudiya, Imad al Maleki, told the news agency Reuters that their bodies were very badly burned. The Japanese authorities have not yet been able to officially identify the bodies of the two journalists. The area around Mahmoudiya has seen repeated attacks and fighting between armed groups and US troops and is one of the most dangerous places in Iraq. Two journalists working for the Polish public television station, TVP, Waldemar Milewicz (a Polish citizen) and Mounir Bouamrane (an Algerian), were killed there on 7 May by gunfire of unidentified origin. Two Iraqis working for the US television news network CNN, Duraid Isa Mohammed (an interpreter) and Yasser Khatab (a driver) were also killed there in an ambush by unidentified armed men on 27 January. Iraq is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the press. At least 30 journalists and media assistants have been killed there since the start of the war in March 2003. Sixteen of them, including 12 Iraqis, have been killed since the beginning of 2004.