Iraqi TV reporter killed in his home

November 22, 2010|Associated Press

BAGHDAD — Gunmen stormed into an Iraqi TV reporter’s home in northern Iraq yesterday and shot him to death in front of his parents, police said.

Mazin Mardan, 18, was the third employee of the Al-Mousiliyah satellite channel in Mosul to be killed by insurgents.

According to Reporters Without Borders, at least 230 media workers have been killed in Iraq since 2003.

Also yesterday, the leader of Parliament told lawmakers that Iraq has run out of money to pay for widows’ benefits, crops, and other programs for the poor.

In only their fourth session since being elected in March, members of Iraq’s Parliament demanded to know what happened to the estimated $1 billion the Finance Ministry allocated for welfare funding for 2010.

“We should ask the government where these allocations for widows’ aid have gone,’’ demanded Sadrist lawmaker Maha Adouri of Baghdad, one of the women who make up a quarter of the Legislature’s 325 members.

The cause of the shortfall was unclear, but officials have worried that the deadlock over forming a new government since March’s inconclusive election ultimately would lead to funding shortages.

Also yesterday, a soldier was shot to death in northern Iraq, the US military said.

Further details were withheld, pending notification of the soldier’s relatives.