BAGHDAD (AP) Two television journalists were shot dead and six anti-extremist militiamen were killed on Saturday in the latest attacks to strike Iraq.
The killings are part of the deadliest surge in bloodshed to hit Iraq in five years, raising fears that the country is falling back into the spiral of violence that brought it to the edge of civil war in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The reporter and a cameraman for the privately owned al-Sharqiya TV channel were shot one in the head, the other in the torso while working on a report in the northern city of Mosul, according to police. The city is a former Sunni insurgent stronghold that has been one of the hardest areas of Iraq to tame.
Al-Sharqiya identified the correspondent as Mohammed Karim al-Badrani and the cameraman as Mohammed Ghanem. It was not immediately clear why they were targeted.
Al-Sharqiya is one of several independent channels that took to the airwaves following the 2003 ouster of former dictator Saddam Hussein. It has drawn the ire of the current Shiite-led government with critical reports highlighting corruption, poor services and other shortcomings. Authorities suspended its operating license along with those of eight other Iraqi channels and pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera in April after accusing them of inflaming sectarian tensions.