Militiamen kill 11 at TV station in Iraq

[ECH1969]

Suspected Shiite militiamen, some dressed as police, broke into a television station and gunned down 11 Iraqi executives, producers and other staffers Thursday — the deadliest attack against the media in this country, where at least 81 other journalists have been killed in the past three years.

So far it had aired only test programming of nationalist songs, including ones against the U.S. military presence in Iraq. That may have led Shiite militiamen to suspect it of a pro-Sunni ideology.

There were also rumors that the station was being financed by Libya. Reporters Without Borders said the militiamen may have been seeking to avenge the kidnapping of a revered Lebanese Shiite cleric, Imam Musa al-Sadr, 28 years ago, an attack often blamed on Libya. Al-Sadr is a distant uncle of Muqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army, Iraq‘s most feared militia.

http://www.newsone.ca/westfallweeklynews/ViewArticle.aspx?id=14666&source=2