Iraqi gunmen kill five journalists in Tikrit

Unknown gunmen have attacked and seized control over an Iraqi television station reportedly killing five journalists.

 

The dead were Salaheddin television's chief news editor, a copy editor, a producer, a presenter and the archives manager, the officers said on Monday.

 

Another five employees were wounded.

 

Two of the attackers blew themselves up, and security forces killed the other two when they stormed the building.

 

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Erbil, said it was not clear if the journalists were executed, or killed during the crossfire.

  

"This is the first time that we are seeing an attack so brazen on such a civilian target," Khan said. "It's really a cause for concern here in Iraq."

 

Journalists have been under attack in Iraq over the last year. On December 15, gunmen shot dead television presenter Nawras al-Nuaimi in northern Iraq.

Nuaimi, who works for the Al-Mosuliyah TV, was murdered as she was walking near her home in Mosul, 400 kilometres northwest of Baghdad.
The latest attacks in Tikrit takes the number of journalists killed in Iraq to 14 in less than three months.
Violence in the country has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was emerging from a period of brutal sectarian killings.
More than 6,650 people have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.