Iraqi Committee to Protect Journalists warns reporters on car bombs

Sep 22, 2008, 11:04 GMT

Baghdad - Amid what appears to be a trend in the killing of journalists in Iraq, the Iraqi Committee to Protect Journalists (ICPJ) issued a warning to media personnel to be on the lookout for car bombs.

'We call on all journalists and media staff to inspect the cars carefully before getting in the car, in case there is a bomb inside or around their car,' committee president Ibrahim al-Sergany told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Earlier this month, a bomb was defused in the car of a correspondent of the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel.

Al-Sergany called the Interior Ministry to provide sufficient security to protect journalists, especially at the Journalist Union headquarters which has been targeted a number of times by insurgents.

Last Saturday, the head of the Iraqi journalists' union, Muaid al- Lami, was injured in bomb blast at the union's headquarters in Baghdad.

Before that attack, unidentified gunmen last weekl killed four journalists working for the TV station al-Sharqia shortly after they were abducted in western Mosul, 405 kilometres north of Baghdad.

The journalists, all in their 20s, were part of a crew of six who worked on a popular TV programme during the holy month of Ramadan.

According to the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 135 journalists and 51 support workers had been killed in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Some 32 journalists were killed in 2007, the CPJ reported on its website. Ten have died so far this year.