Off the wire
• London marathon to serve as another Olympic trial for Kenya  • Economic recovery in eurozone to continue despite risks: think tanks  • Iranian fighter jet crashes, 2 pilots killed: report  • Bahrain says 575 terror-related cases probed last year  • Roundup: Thousands of junior doctors go on strike across England  • Pakistan condemns terrorist attack in Istanbul  • Three sentenced for polluting water in central China  • 2nd Ld-Writethru: Blast in Istanbul kills 10, Turkish president blames Syrian suicide bomber  • Ongoing war in Yemen further endangering children's lives: UN  • Jailed Indonesian Muslim cleric appeals against his sentence  
You are here: 　 Home

2 Iraqi TV journalists killed in eastern province of Diyala

Xinhua, January 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

An Iraqi TV reporter and a cameraman were killed in the eastern province of Diyala on Tuesday, where sectarian tensions are high after a deadly bomb attacks the day before, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

The bodies of TV reporter Sayf Talal and cameraman Hassan al-Anbaki, both working for al-Sharqiyah satellite channel, were found dumped on the sidewalk of a road in Wajihiyah area, north of the provincial capital city Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.

They were covering Monday evening's bomb attacks in the town of Maqdadiyah and the subsequent sectarian tensions, but disappeared on their way back to Baquba, apparently kidnapped by gunmen and shot in their heads, the source said.

The killing of the two is seen as part of the sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shiite communities, which has already hiked after the twin bomb attacks the day before at a coffee shop attended by Shiite residents in the town of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad.

The twin blasts have killed 27 people and wounded 55 others, another provincial security source told Xinhua earlier on Tuesday.

The sectarian tensions in Maqdadiyah had pushed Shiite militiamen to bomb four Sunni mosques and 10 shops owned by Sunnis in the town on Monday night, the source said without elaboration.

On Tuesday, two more Sunni were bombed by the militias in the morning, the source said.

Also on Tuesday, the police chief of Diyala province told Xinhua that a police intelligence force chased a suicide car bomb in Jadidat al-Shat area west of Baquba. The bomber detonated himself near police vehicles, leaving an intelligence officer and two policemen killed, while the head of the provincial intelligence department, two other officers and seven policemen were wounded in the blast.

The chief said the suicide car bomber was supposed to hit civilian targets in the area in an attempt to inflame sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shiite communities.

Earlier in the month, a report made by the Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate said that a total of 14 journalists were killed in violence-ridden Iraq in 2015, bringing the death toll of journalists in the country to 406 since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Endit