New York, October 28, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by reports that editor Ahmed Shawkat was murdered today in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

According to The Associated Press (AP) and an Agence France-Presse correspondent in Mosul, Shawkat, editor of the Iraqi weekly Bilah Ittijah (Without Direction), was shot and killed by a gunman. The gunman and an accomplice had followed the journalist to his office roof this afternoon.

Shawkat's daughter, Roaa, told AP that her father had received threatening letters several weeks earlier warning him to close his newspaper. Local police are investigating the murder.

No further details are available at this time. CPJ continues to monitor the case.