Washington Post Correspondent Dies in Iraq

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BAGHDAD, Oct. 14 -- A veteran Washington Post special correspondent was shot to death Sunday in southwest Baghdad while on assignment, the first reporter for the newspaper to be killed during the Iraq war.

Salih Saif Aldin, 32, was reporting on the violence that has plagued Baghdad's Sadiyah neighborhood Sunday afternoon when he was shot in the forehead. According to residents of the neighborhood and the Iraqi military officers at the scene, he was taking photographs on a street where several houses had been burned when he was killed. His wounds appeared to indicate he was shot at close range.

"Courageous beyond imagination, Salih was determined to unveil the truth," said Sudarsan Raghavan, the Post's Baghdad bureau chief. "He was instrumental to The Post's coverage of Iraq. He will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues."

At least 118 journalists have been killed in Iraq while on duty, nearly 100 of them are Iraqis, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Foreign news organizations rely heavily on their Iraqi staff members to navigate the hazards of reporting here.

Saif Aldin left The Post's Baghdad bureau Sunday afternoon in a taxi to interview residents in Sadiyah about clashes between militiamen and insurgents. A Washington Post colleague received a telephone call just after 4 p.m. from a man who said he was a police officer and who was using Saif Aldin's cell phone. The man said he was standing next to Saif Aldin's body, which later was observed lying on the street, covered with newspapers.

A divorced father of a 6-year-old daughter, he distinguished himself as one of the most fearless reporters in The Post's Baghdad bureau. He began work for the paper in early 2004 as a stringer in his hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

In July 2005, he received a note threatening his life if he did not quit journalism and leave the city. He refused. "This is my city, and I'm a journalist," he told colleagues.

Shortly after, he was attacked by two men, who beat him with their fists, a metal pipe and the butt of a pistol, leaving him with bruises all over his body and opening a gash in his head that required eight stitches. After he was released from the hospital, The Post implored him to leave Tikrit. When he refused, Omar Fekeiki, the newspaper's former office manager and special correspondent, said he was told he would be fired if he didn't leave.

Saif Aldin later moved to Baghdad, where he repeatedly braved the city's most dangerous neighborhoods, often traveling alone

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Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/14/AR2007101400612.html?nav=rss_world

Crap...

:cry:

how very sad.

before someone calls party foul.

certainly leaves open the possibility that the reporter trusted his murderer. :(

:-(

Link: http://www.cpj.org/

:hi:

:hi: