Ismail Amin Ali

New York, October 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the reported murder of an Iraqi journalist, whose body was identified in the Baghdad morgue today, a week after he had been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen.

The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization, said the body of Azad Muhammad Hussein, 29, a reporter for the Iraqi Islamic Party-owned Radio Dar Al-Salam, showed evident signs of torture. The journalist was kidnapped from al-Shaab neighborhood in northern Baghdad on October 3. It was not immediately clear how or when Hussein’s body arrived at the morgue. CPJ is investigating to determine whether the killing was related to Hussein’s work.

New York, August 8, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murders of two Iraqi journalists who were discovered dead on Monday by police in Baghdad. At least four Iraqi journalists have been slain in the past 10 days as murder continues to drive up the record death toll of journalists in Iraq.

Unidentified gunmen shot Mohammad Abbas Mohammad, 28, an editor for the Shiite-owned newspaper Al-Bayinnah Al-Jadida, as he was leaving his home in the Adil section of western Baghdad to go to work early Monday morning, according to The Associated Press and CPJ sources. Mohammad was highly critical of politicians and Iraqi officials regardless of sect or affiliation, a local source told CPJ. The journalist had received several death threats because he worked for the paper, local journalists said.