2 Iraqi ABC News journalists killed

This undated handout photo provided by ABC shows the two Iraqi journalists working for ABC, Saif Laith Yousuf, right, and Alaa Uldeen Aziz, who were ambushed and killed as they drove home from work in Baghdad, Thursday, May 17, 2007, the television network announced Friday.    (AP Photo/ABC)

BAGHDAD - Two Iraqi journalists working for ABC News were ambushed and killed as they drove home from work, the television network said Friday.

The attack took place Thursday when unknown assailants attacked the car carrying cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz, 33, and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf, 26, from the network's Baghdad bureau, ABC News President David Westin said in a statement posted on the ABC News Web site.

ABC said the two were on their way home from work when they were stopped by two cars full of gunmen and forced to get out of their car. They were unaccounted for overnight and their deaths were confirmed in the morning, it added.

"They are really our eyes and ears in Iraq, " ABC Baghdad correspondent Terry McCarthy said on "Good Morning America." "Many places in Baghdad are just too dangerous for foreigners to go now, so we have Iraqi camera crews who very bravely go out. ... Without them, we are blind, we cannot see what's going on."

ABC said Aziz is survived by his wife, his two daughters and his mother and Yousuf is survived by his fiancee, his mother, brothers and sisters.

Journalists have been frequently targeted by violence in Iraq. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded 102 journalists and 39 media support workers killed and 48 journalists abducted since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Those numbers do not include those killed in the latest attack.

ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq last year.

A car bombing in May 2006 killed a CBS News camera crew — British cameramen Paul Douglas and British soundman James Brolan, as well as a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi translator. CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier was seriously wounded in the same attack.



Source : news.yahoo.com


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