2 Iraqi journalists killed

Gunmen broke into the home of a Sunni journalist and killed him and seven family members, while another reporter was slain in southern Iraq, police and medical officials said Wednesday.

Abdul-Rahman al-Essawi was shot to death Monday along with his wife, son, parents and three other relatives at his home about 10 miles west of Fallujah, said Dr. Anas al-Rawi of Fallujah General Hospital.

Other family members told an Associated Press reporter in Fallujah _ a former insurgent stronghold in Anbar province _ that al-Essawi was working as a reporter for the online NINA news agency and as the media representative of Anbar Salvation Council. The council was formed recently among Sunni tribes in Anbar to fight al-Qaida in Iraq.

In Amarah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, gunmen mowed down Nazar Abdul-Wahid on Wednesday, according to a police official in the city who refused to give his name for fear of retribution from militants.

Abdul-Wahid worked as a reporter for several Iraqi newspapers and the Voices of Iraq Internet news agency. In Prague, the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said Abdul-Wahid worked for the broadcaster's Arabic service, known as Radio Free Iraq.

In a statement, the organization said he was hit by four bullets when gunmen in a pickup truck opened fire on him and several other journalists in front of the Al-Arusa Hotel in Amarah.

It said an unspecified number of journalists were injured. The journalists were attending a workshop in the hotel. The radio said Abdul-Wahid had received threats in the past due to his work for a "foreign agency."

Police in Amarah said Abdul-Wahid was 33 and the father of two. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said he was 37 and the father of three.

Abdul-Wahid also was chairman of a non-governmental organization for young journalists that is funded by the Iraqi government.

Journalists have been frequently targeted by violence in Iraq. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 104 journalists and 39 media support workers have been killed and 48 journalists have been abducted since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, making it the deadliest conflict for the media in CPJ's 25-year history.

Of the 104 journalists killed, 82 were Iraqi, as were 38 of the 39 media support staff killed, according to CPJ.

The numbers include ABC cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz, 33, and the network's sound technician Saif Laith Yousuf, 26, who were killed as they traveled home from the network's Baghdad bureau May 17.

The figures do not include al-Essawi or Abdul-Wahid.