Thursday, October 12, 2006

Gunmen Storm Iraqi TV Station, Kill 11

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen, some of them in police uniforms, stormed the downtown Baghdad headquarters of a new satellite television station Thursday, killing the board chairman and 10 others in the second attack on an Iraqi station in the capital in as many weeks.

The motive for the attack was not clear, though there were signs it was carried out by Shiite militiamen. Sunnis say the militias often have help from police - and in its few short broadcasts, the station played nationalist music against the U.S. occupation, perhaps prompting militiamen to assume it sympathized with Sunni insurgents.

Sunni insurgents are also said to sometimes disguise themselves as police when they carry out attacks. The station had a mixed staff, and the slain chairman was a Shiite who had been jailed under Saddam Hussein.

Journalists have frequently been targeted in both the insurgency and the spiral of sectarian killings in Iraq. ...

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