Iraqi state TV reporter shot to death in Mosul

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An Iraqi state TV anchor who broadcast programs about herbal medicine was shot to death Tuesday in the northern city of Mosul, officials and colleagues said. Muhieddin Abdul-Hamid, a 50-year-old Iraqiya reporter, was killed by gunmen who emerged from a car near his home in an upscale Sunni neighborhood in eastern Mosul, police and a colleague said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information Abdul-Hamid - along with many other Iraqiya employees - found a note on his doorstep more than a year ago warning him to quit his job or face death, but he ignored the threat, the colleague said. The slain journalist is survived by his wife. The state-run Iraqiya called Abdul-Hamid a martyr and condemned the attack, saying it was a "cowardly criminal act targeting freedom of speech." The Iraqi Journalists' Union, meanwhile, urged the military in Ninevah province, of which Mosul is the capital, to step up efforts to end assassination attempts against journalists.