Two media workers killed in suicide bombing

Reporters Without Borders is saddened to learn that two employees of state-owned Al-Iraqiya TV, Muthanna Abdel Hussein and Khaled Abdel Thamer, were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a police checkpoint at Hala, 70 km south of Baghdad, yesterday morning. “We offer our condolences to the friends and families of these two media workers and we condemn this attack with the utmost energy,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Journalists are among the leading victims of renewed sectarian violence in Iraq, which has been revived by the crisis in Syria and which could tip the country into civil war at any moment. We have repeatedly drawn the government’s attention to the dangers that journalists face and we have asked in vain for adequate measures to protect them.” According to the information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, the two Al-Iraqiya TV employees worked for its Babel province bureau and were on duty when they were killed. Fourteen Iraqi media workers have been killed in the past five months. Six of them were personally targeted, five were killed in a suicide attack on Salaheddin TV in Tikrit in December, and three were the collateral victims of suicide bombings or car bombs.