New York, July 15, 2005A gunman fired on a car carrying
an Al-Iraqiya television crew in Baghdad on Thursday, wounding three
staffers, according to news reports.
The crew was on its way to cover the funerals of car-bomb victims when
a masked assailant walked up to its car in the New Baghdad neighborhood
and opened fire, Al-Iraqiya correspondent Bassem al-Fadhli told The
Associated Press. Al-Fadhli was traveling in the car, but he was not
injured.
The driver, a cameraman, and an assistant cameraman were wounded, he
told the AP. The Committee to Protect Journalists could not immediately
reach Al-Iraqiya officials for comment, but the station reported the
attack on the air and said one of the three wounded staffers had suffered
severe injuries.
The crew was assigned to cover the funerals of people killed in an explosion
Wednesday in the neighborhood, al-Fadhli told the AP. The Wednesday
blast killed up to 27 people, including 18 children and teenagers.
At least three staffers of Al-Iraqiya, the Iraqi public network, have
died since hostilities began more than two years ago.
