Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Posted & reprinted from: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112707K.shtml
Baghdad - Gunmen in Baghdad's Shaab neighborhood stormed into a house not far from an Iraqi police checkpoint and killed 11 members of an Iraqi journalist's family, witnesses and journalism organizations reported Monday.

The killings came after the journalist, Dhia al Kawazz, who edits a Web site from Amman, Jordan, that's frequently critical of militia groups, was warned to stop his work, said the family member, who asked to be identified only as Abu Mohammed. Kawazz was in Amman during the attack.

"As you've noticed, there is no one seeking an investigation, and no investigation has been opened," said Ibrahim al Saraj, who heads the Association to Defend Iraqi Journalists' Rights in Iraq. Saraj said the killings were part of a campaign to attack journalists "to dim the news in this country and to oppress journalistic freedom in Iraq."

Journalists are frequent targets of violence in Iraq. At least 206 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, according to the Paris-based advocacy group Reporters without Borders, which condemned the killings on Monday.

But Sunday's killings also provided a chilling look at why Baghdad remains a city governed by fear, despite declines in violence hailed by Iraqi and U.S. officials.

Abu Mohammed, Kawazz's relative, said neighbors told him that the Land Cruiser was carrying five men when it pulled up in front of Kawazz's house at 7:30 a.m. Four gunmen got out and used some type of explosive to enter the house, where members of the family were eating breakfast. One man stayed in the vehicle, its engine running.

The four gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons, Abu Mohammed said, killing seven children, two women who reportedly were Kawazz's sisters and their husbands. Kawazz's mother survived because she was on the roof, Abu Mohammed said.

The men detonated another explosive as they left the house, but nearby police made no effort to stop the assailants as they drove away, said Mohammed, a colleague who refused to be identified, and Saraj.

Kawazz, a Shiite, runs an electronic news agency that often criticizes the U.S. and Iranian "occupations" in Iraq as well as the Mahdi Army and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its military wing, the Badr Organization. His Web site, www.aliraqnews.com, often drops the honorific "sayed" or "honored one" from before Sadr's name, and Kawazz recently published a lengthy article detailing divisions within the Mahdi Army.

Kawazz was told of the killings by a third sister on Sunday. His Web site published an account of the attack on Monday and accused "sectarian militias" of the crime.

Abu Mohammed said that Kawazz had received letter and telephone threats to stop his work. "They are seeking to make Iraq empty of journalists who can report the truth," he said.

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