WOUNDED AL-ARABIYYA REPORTER DIES

New York, March 19, 2004—Ali al-Khatib, a reporter for the United Arab Emirates­based satellite news channel Al-Arabiyya who was wounded yesterday when U.S. troops fired on a car carrying four station employees, has died.

Al-Arabiyya news director Saleh Negm told CPJ that al-Khatib died in a hospital from a bullet wound to his head.

Another Al-Arabiyya journalist, cameraman Ali Abdel-Aziz, was also fatally shot in yesterday’s incident, which occurred at a U.S. military checkpoint in the capital, Baghdad.

CPJ continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths, as well as a separate incident yesterday in which armed gunmen opened fire on a minibus carrying employees of the U.S.-funded Iraqi TV station Diyala, killing three and wounding several others.