An Iraqi reporter was seriously injured Wednesday in a landmine explosion in east Baghdad, while another was injured by a sniper in the southern city of Basra, according to the Iraqi Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO).
Haitham Ibrahim, a cameraman working for Iraqi al-Dayar satellite channel, had his leg amputated after suffering serious injuries in a landmine explosion in Talabiyah district in east Baghdad, JFO reported. A channel official, Emad al-Abadi, said the cameraman—injured while shooting in the restive area—was in a critical condition in a hospital in Sadr City.
An agency report on monstersandcritics.com said:
Ibrahim is not receiving proper care in the hospital, which has been short of medical supplies due to a week-long blockade of Sadr City by US and Iraqi troops, al-Abdai said. The Iraqi press group appealed to the authorities to move Ibrahim to a better-equipped hospital. Sadr City, a stronghold of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has been the scene of heavy fighting between Iraqi and US troops and the militia.
In Basra, another journalist, Mazen Tayyar, was lightly injured in the leg by a sniper in Qibla, eight kilometers west of the city, the Voices of Iraq news agency cited a local journalist as saying. Tayyar is the correspondent of the Washington-based al-Hurra television funded by the US State Department. The journalist was accompanying the motorcade of senior officials of Iraqi Ministry of Defence, including the commander of operations in Basra.
Oil-rich Basra has been the scene of a major offensive, which was launched on March 25 by government troops backed by US and British forces to loosen the grip of militias and gangs over the Shiite- dominated city.
