Gunmen stormed a television station in Baghdad on Thursday and shot dead 11 staff in the biggest attack yet on media in Iraq. Iraqi media organisations, funded by religious or political groups, are frequent targets for militant groups as attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents and sectarian death squads continue to convulse the country, killing an estimated 100 people a day.
Shaabiya satellite channel, owned by a small secular political party, has not yet begun broadcasting. Its executive manager, Hassan Kamil, stressed it had no political agenda and that the staff had been a mix of Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurds.
Kamil said gunmen driving at least five four-wheel drive vehicles raided the station's office in eastern Zayouna district at 7 am (0400 GMT), killing guards, technicians and administrative staff.
"Some of them were wearing police uniforms and others civilian clothing. All were masked," he told Reuters. Kamil said the staff had been staying overnight in the station. Most were shot as they lay sleeping in their beds, while one was shot in the bathroom. Only two employees survived the attack, one of whom was severely wounded, he said.
A Reuters reporter saw blood spattered on furniture and on the floor in the station's reception area. Shaabiya is owned by the National Justice and Progress Party, which contested the last elections but failed to win any seats. The party's leader, Abdul-Rahim al-Nasrallah, also head of the station's board of directors, was among the dead.
Iraq is the most dangerous place in the world for the media to operate, according to international media watchdogs. Reporters Without Borders says 109 local and foreign journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the US invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Most of the Iraqi journalists killed to date have been targeted in bomb attacks or shot dead, so Thursday's raid on Shaabiya's offices was unusual. Until Thursday, the biggest single attack on a media organisation was the car bombing in 2004 on the Baghdad offices of Dubai-based Arabiya television, which killed seven.
US military spokesman Major General Caldwell said there had been a spike in violence in Baghdad since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan nearly three weeks ago, with an average of 36 attacks a day. "We're assuming it's going to get worse before it gets better," he said. Militants were "punching back hard" in an attempt to show the government cannot maintain security.
A roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad's Bab al-Sharji district on Thursday morning, police said. When police and rescue services arrived on the scene a car bomb exploded. Police said the blasts killed five people and wounded 10.
Two bombs also exploded near a petrol station in the northern Qahira district, killing three people and wounding 15, among them policemen. Twelve people were slain in shootings in the volatile town of Baquba north of Baghdad.
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