Middle East News

Two reporters injured in Iraq attacks (Extra)

Apr 2, 2008, 12:06 GMT

Baghdad - An Iraqi reporter was seriously injured Wednesday in a landmine explosion in east Baghdad, according to the Iraqi Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), while another was injured by a sniper in the southern city of Basra.

Haitham Ibrahim, a cameraman working for Iraqi al-Dayar satellite channel, had his leg amputated after suffering serious injuries in a landmine explosion in Talabiyah district in east Baghdad, JFO said in a statement posted on its website.

A channel official, Emad al-Abadi, said the cameraman - injured while shooting in the restive area - was in a critical condition in a hospital in Sadr City.

Ibrahim is not receiving proper care in the hospital, which has been short of medical supplies due to a week-long blockade of Sadr City by US and Iraqi troops, al-Abdai said.

The Iraqi press group appealed to the authorities to move Ibrahim to a better-equipped hospital.

Sadr City, a stronghold of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has been the scene of heavy fighting between Iraqi and US troops and the militia.

At least 32 journalists have been killed on scenes of blasts since the US-led war on Iraq in 2003, according to JFO estimates.

In Basra, another journalist, Mazen Tayyar, was lightly injured in the leg by a sniper in Qibla, eight kilometers west of the city, the Voices of Iraq news agency cited a local journalist as saying.

Tayyar is the correspondent of the Washington-based al-Hurra television funded by the US State Department.

The journalist was accompanying the motorcade of senior officials of Iraqi Ministry of Defence, including the commander of operations in Basra.

No reports of casualties were immediately available.

Oil-rich Basra has been the scene of a major offensive, which was launched on March 25 by government troops backed by US and British forces to loosen the grip of militias and gangs over the Shiite- dominated city.