The latest victim, a news agency reporter, was shot several times in the head in Mosul.
UPDATE 16 October 2014: Confusion about Iraqi journalist’s reported death in Mosul (Reporters Without Borders)
This article was originally published on rsf.org on 14 October 2014:
The latest victim, a news agency reporter, was shot several times in the head in Mosul.
Reporters Without Borders is appalled to learn that the Jihadi group Islamic State murdered another Iraqi journalist yesterday in Mosul (in the northern province of Nineveh), just two days after publicly executing an Iraqi journalist in Samara (in Salahuddin province).
The latest victim was Mohanad Al-Aqidi, the Sada news agency’s Mosul correspondent and a former presenter on now closed Al-Mowseliya TV. Kidnapped in July on his way to Dohuk province, he was shot several times in the head yesterday in Al-Ghazlani camp, in southern Mosul.
Reporters Without Borders is horrified by the Jihadi group’s constant crimes of violence, whose victims have included many journalists.
“Islamic State is pursuing a policy of indiscriminate criminal violence that shows no pity towards journalists and does not hesitate to kidnap, torture and murder them,” said Reporters Without Borders programme director Lucie Morillon. “Media personnel need the support and protection of the local authorities more than ever.”
After Al-Aqidi was killed, his body was taken to a forensic medical centre in Mosul and then handed over to his family. A source close to the family said the body bore the marks of torture and there were several gunshot injuries to the head.
He also said that Al-Aqidi had been detained in Badush prison, which Islamic State is using to hold thousands of the prisoners it has taken since the start of its offensive in Iraq.
His murder came two days after Islamic State’s public execution of TV cameraman Raad Mohamed Al-Azaoui’s in Samara.
The number of Islamic State’s atrocities is clearly increasing in Iraq although the fate of some detained journalists is not clear.
According to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), Islamic State has killed two Iraqi journalists and has arrested (or kidnapped) nine others in Mosul.
Meanwhile in Syria, Islamic State has killed two US journalists and eight Syrian journalists, and is currently holding one US journalist and at least nine Syrian journalists.
