Filaih Wuday Mijthab

See also: Journalists killed   |   Media workers killed   |   Background reports

---

Here is a statistical look at journalists abducted by armed groups in Iraq and held for periods ranging from several hours to many weeks. The analysis, covering the period 2003-09, is followed by capsule reports detailing each abduction. 

New York, June 18, 2007—The body of an Iraqi newspaper editor was found in Baghdad’s main morgue on Sunday, four days after he was abducted by armed men. Filaih Wuday Mijthab, who worked with the government-run daily Al-Sabah, suffered bullet wounds to the head, the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq reported.

There has been no claim of responsibility. Insurgent and other armed groups have frequently targeted Al-Sabah and other state-run media because of their ties to the U.S.-supported Iraqi government. The New York Times reported on Monday that Mijthab could have been targeted by Shiite groups because of his past work for state-run media under the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Mijthab, like many of the newspaper’s employees, had received numerous telephone threats while working at Al-Sabah, the paper reported.

New York, June 13, 2007—The managing editor of Iraq’s daily newspaper Al-Sabah was abducted by gunmen early today while on his way to work in Baghdad, the latest victim in a string of attacks against journalists working for the state-run media.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the kidnapping of Filaih Wuday Mijthab.

Mijthab, 53, left his home for work along with his eldest son and a driver when gunmen in three vehicles stopped them in Baghdad’s eastern neighborhood of Al-Habibiya and ordered him out of the vehicle at gunpoint, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization. Mijthab was taken to an unknown location; his son and the driver were not seized.