BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb blast killed an Iraqi television cameraman and his driver as the crew worked on a report for the upcoming anniversary of one of the most stunning attacks blamed on Sunni extremists, the station reported Wednesday.
Alaa Abdul-Karim al-Fartoosi, 29, was part of an Al-Forat television team collecting reports to mark the February 2006 bombing that damaged the gold-domed Shiite shrine in Samarra — an attack that set off some of Iraq’s worst sectarian bloodshed.
The roadside blast Tuesday struck the journalists’ car in Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad and near the Samarra site, said Haider Kadhum, news editor of Al-Forat television. An Al-Forat correspondent and camera assistant were wounded.
It was not clear whether the television crew was targeted, but Iraqi journalists face some of the most dangerous working conditions in the world — random violence as well as attacks for their reports or contacts with foreign media.
Al-Forat TV is affiliated with a key Shiite political party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
The Feb. 23, 2006, shrine bombing — blamed on Sunni insurgents — touched off a wave of clashes between Shiites and Sunnis across Iraq, claiming thousands of lives.
Sporadic violence was reported across Iraq on Wednesday, including a drive-by shooting in Mosul that killed a university professor and one of his students. Also in Mosul, a roadside bomb blast struck a police commando patrol, killing one officer and wounding two, said police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.
Mosul has become the next likely showdown with Sunni insurgents, who have shifted to northern Iraq to escape a U.S.-led offensive in and around Baghdad.
Iraqi police and military units have been dispatched to the Mosul area for an expected push into Iraq’s third-largest city. U.S. commanders also are bolstering forces around Mosul, but a major offensive could still be weeks away.
