3 Iraqi journalists killed in shooting

Three Iraqi journalists and their driver were killed Wednesday in a drive-by shooting near the northern city of Kirkuk, the second attack against the country's media in less than a week.

The attackers armed with machine guns opened fire about 2 p.m. as they drove past a vehicle carrying the journalists in the Rashad area, 20 miles southwest of Kirkuk, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said.

The four worked for the independent Raad media company, which publishes several weekly newspapers and monthly magazines that are generally pro-government and deal with politics, education and arts.

The attack came six days after gunmen stormed the offices of the independent Dijlah radio station in a predominantly Sunni area in western Baghdad, killing two employees and wounding five before bombing the building and knocking the station off the air.

Those killed Wednesday were identified as the company's director Raad Mutashar, two journalists, Imad Abdul-Razzaq and Aqil Abdul-Qadir, and their driver, Nibras Razzaq.

Mutashar, a Shiite, was editor in chief of the governmental newspaper in Kirkuk under Saddam Hussein's regime. After the U.S.-led invasion, he was the head of the Kirkuk Writers' Association, then he established his publishing company.

Abdul-Qadir also was a Shiite, but Razzaq and Abdul-Razzaq were Sunnis.

"It's important to note that they worked for an independent media company. Independent media in the region are being attacked, they're being shut down, and their journalists are being killed," said Tala Dowlatshahi, a spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders.

Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, has seen violence rise recently with an influx of militants who have fled a security crackdown in the capital.

Ethnic tensions also have risen over Kurdish demands for a referendum on incorporating the oil-rich city into their autonomous region _ a move opposed by many Arabs who moved to the area under Saddam Hussein decades ago to dilute the Kurdish presence there.

Journalists have been frequently targeted by violence in Iraq.

Not including Wednesday's attack, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded 101 journalists and 38 media support workers killed and 48 journalists abducted since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The violence against journalists in northern Iraq have largely been concentrated in Mosul, although Saman Abdullah Izzedine, a TV news anchor for a Kurdish-backed station in Kirkuk, was gunned down as he was driving to Baghdad on April 15, 2005.