By Xinhua
Baghdad : An Iraqi journalist was shot dead in central Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi journalists’ Union told Xinhua.
“Qasim Abdul Hussein al-Eqabi, a journalist working for the local al-Muwatin newspaper was killed when unknown gunmen in two cars showered him with bullets near the National Theater in Karrada neighborhood,” Jabbar Tarrad, the new chief of the Iraqi Journalists’ Union told Xinhua by telephone.
Tarrad condemns the killing of Eqabi, describing the attacks on the Iraqi Journalists as “cowered acts” aiming at preventing them from performing their sacred work.
On Feb. 27, the former chief of the Iraqi Journalists’ Union Shihab al-Timimi died of fatal wounds he sustained when unknown gunmen attacked him outside the union building in central Baghdad few days earlier.
The Iraqi Journalists’ Union said earlier that more than 250 Iraqi journalists have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF)said that the war in Iraq has proved to be the deadliest for journalists since World War II.
“No country has ever seen more journalists killed than Iraq,” RSF said.