Several gunmen in a car followed al-Diyali, a photographer for the Baghdad-based newspaper Al-Sa’a, and then shot him in Ramadi’s central neighborhood of Malaab, a journalist familiar with the case told CPJ. Al-Diyali died at the scene, the journalist said.
Just before he was killed, al-Diyali photographed damage to the central mosque in Ramadi caused by a U.S. bombardment the previous day, the source said. Witnesses said al-Diyali was being watched while he was taking photographs. The gunmen caught up with al-Diyali after he drove away from the mosque, the source told CPJ.
Al-Sa’a was established immediately after Saddam Hussein’s overthrow in 2003. It is a political and social weekly owned by prominent Sunni cleric Ahmad Kubeisi. Al-Diyala also contributed photographs on a freelance basis to the state-run daily Al-Sabah, the source said.