Brian Damage
05-19-2007, 01:37 AM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gunmen killed two ABC News employees in Iraq in the latest attack on journalists in the war-torn country, the U.S. news organization said on Friday.
The men were identified as cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz, 33, and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf, 26, ABC News said in a statement.
"Today, we've lost two family members, and it really hurts," Terry McCarthy, ABC News' Baghdad correspondent, said on the news organization's Web site. "We have Iraqi camera crews who very bravely go out ... without them we are blind, we cannot see what's going on."
The two were returning home from work at the ABC News Baghdad bureau on Thursday when they were stopped by two cars full of gunmen and forced out of their car, the statement said. They were confirmed dead Friday morning.
The deaths brought the number of journalists killed in Iraq since 2003 to 104, making it the deadliest conflict for media in 25 years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"This senseless attack underscores why Iraq remains the most dangerous assignment in the world," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement. "No journalist is safe in covering this story, especially local Iraqi reporters who have suffered the brunt of media casualties."
Iraqis have accounted for 83 percent of all media deaths in the country, the group said.
Aziz is survived by his wife, two daughters and mother, and Yousuf by his fiancee, mother and brothers and sisters, ABC said.
Reuters/Nielsen
The men were identified as cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz, 33, and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf, 26, ABC News said in a statement.
"Today, we've lost two family members, and it really hurts," Terry McCarthy, ABC News' Baghdad correspondent, said on the news organization's Web site. "We have Iraqi camera crews who very bravely go out ... without them we are blind, we cannot see what's going on."
The two were returning home from work at the ABC News Baghdad bureau on Thursday when they were stopped by two cars full of gunmen and forced out of their car, the statement said. They were confirmed dead Friday morning.
The deaths brought the number of journalists killed in Iraq since 2003 to 104, making it the deadliest conflict for media in 25 years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"This senseless attack underscores why Iraq remains the most dangerous assignment in the world," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement. "No journalist is safe in covering this story, especially local Iraqi reporters who have suffered the brunt of media casualties."
Iraqis have accounted for 83 percent of all media deaths in the country, the group said.
Aziz is survived by his wife, two daughters and mother, and Yousuf by his fiancee, mother and brothers and sisters, ABC said.
Reuters/Nielsen