Region | Iraq
Iraq suicide bomber kills four near Al Arabiya TV office
A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle near the Baghdad offices of Al Arabiya television killing at least four people
- AFP
- Published: 12:11 July 26, 2010
- Image Credit: Gulf News
Baghdad: A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle near the Baghdad offices of Al Arabiya television Monday, killing at least four people and injured 15 people, a month after officials warned the Dubai-based channel of insurgent threats.
The bomber struck at around 9.30am (0630 GMT) in front of the station’s bureau in the city centre, leaving a massive crater and sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen from several km away.
An interior ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, blamed Al Qaida for the attack and put the casualty toll at three dead and 16 wounded. “There was a huge explosion that shook the building – all the rooms were damaged,” Al Arabiya journalist Tareq Maher told the channel in a live broadcast.
He said that two security guards and a 50-year-old female office assistant were killed, and added that a male Bangladeshi office assistant was missing. Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta accused Al Qaida of being behind the attack, speaking to Al Arabiya.
Al Arabiya closed its Baghdad office in June citing government warnings of a threat of insurgent attack.
The pan-Arab television channel has been no stranger to attack by suspected Sunni Arab insurgents or pressure from Iraq’s Shiite-led government. In September 2008, its Baghdad bureau chief, Jawad Hattab, escaped unharmed after spotting a bomb, which would-be assassins had attached to his car, before it was detonated by remote control.
In October 2006, a car bomb targeting the channel's then bureau killed seven people and wounded 20. And in February 2006, Al Arabiya presenter Atwar Bahjat and two of her colleagues were kidnapped and murdered in the mainly Sunni town of Samarra north of Baghdad as they covered the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine, an attack claimed by Al Qaida that plunged the country into sectarian bloodshed.
In September 2006, the channel was banned from reporting out of Iraq for a month after officials took issue with its coverage of the passage through parliament of a bill strongly opposed by Sunni Arabs granting all of Iraq’s provinces the right to seek regional autonomy. The month-long ban prompted condemnation from international press watchdogs and an expression of concern from Washington.
US and Iraqi officials have warned of the dangers of an upsurge in violence as negotiations on forming a new governing coalition have dragged on, giving insurgent groups an opportunity to further destabilise the country. More than four months after a March 7 general election which gave no single bloc an overall parliamentary majority, the two lists that won most seats are still bickering over who should be the next prime minister.
Do you think members of the media are becoming more of a target for violent groups? Is this because these groups are seeking media attention? Or are media members just easy targets?
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