Iraqi reporter of NY Times killed in Baghdad

FE Team | Published: July 14, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

BAGHDAD, July 13 (AFP): An Iraqi journalist working with The New York Times in Baghdad was shot dead Friday, the newspaper's Baghdad bureau chief said in a statement.
Khalid W. Hassan, 23, was shot dead while on his way to work Friday in the capital's southern Saidiyah neighbourhood, John F. Burns said.
"The circumstances of the attack remain unclear at this time," Burns said.
"Khalid, who was 23 years old, was a resourceful and brave member of our news team, who met the many professional and personal challenges of his four years on our staff with enduring good humour and optimism."
Khalid is the second journalist to be killed in Baghdad in two days.
On Thursda,y an Iraqi photographer and his driver working for international news agency Reuters were killed while filming a fierce battle between US forces and militants in Baghdad's Al-Amin neighbourhood.
Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, died as they were filming a minibus which was hit by a shell or rocket, witnesses said Thursday.
A statement from US command said a firefight broke out when American and Iraqi troops came under small arms fire and rocket- propelled-grenade attack during a planned operation in eastern Baghdad on Thursday.
Meanwhile: Iraq government is making only eager progress, a new US report found Thursday, as the House of Representatives voted again for troop withdrawals and Democrats roasted the White House over the war.
Defying a new veto threat from under-fire President George W. Bush, the House demanded a pull-back of most US combat troops in Iraq to start within 120 days, to be completed by April 1.
But Bush insisted America could still win the four-year war, and warned that withdrawing the 160,000 US troops in the country would mean "surrendering the future of Iraq to Al-Qaeda."
The White House's interim report into Bush's plan to surge an extra 30,000 troops into Iraq found satisfactory progress by the Baghdad government on only eight of 18 security and political benchmarks set by Congress.
Bush said however he still had "confidence" in Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki.
He vowed to make no final judgments about the plan until he had received a definitive study by US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus in September.
"I believe we can succeed in Iraq, and I know we must," Bush said at a news conference dominated by the war, which has now killed 3,612 US troops.
The report revealed efforts by Iraq to get its armed forces operating independently of US units -- a key goal of the US administration -- had made "unsatisfactory progress."
Among other judgments, the report said "the prerequisites for a successful militia disarmament program are not present" in Iraq.
Baghdad had made "unsatisfactory" progress on legislation explicitly endorsed by Washington as central to efforts to quiet sectarian violence.