Al-Radhi, 38, a correspondent for the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq and Radio Free Iraq, was gunned down in the southern city of Al-Amarah in Maysan province. Three men wearing white uniforms and riding in a pickup truck killed al-Radhi outside the Al-Arusa Hotel in the city’s center, Saad Hassan, an eyewitness and reporter for the daily newspaper Al-Sabah, told Aswat al-Iraq.
Al-Radhi had finished covering a journalism workshop for Radio Free Iraq, according to a statement by its parent, the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Hassan told Aswat al-Iraq that al-Radhi was talking to a workshop leader when the gunmen began firing. RFE/RL said al-Radhi was shot four times and died at the scene; several other journalists were injured. Eyewitnesses said nearby Iraqi police did not intervene during the attack, Aswat al-Iraq reported.
RFE/RL reported that al-Radhi had received prior threats because of his work for a “foreign agency.” Radio Free Iraq is the Arabic-language service of RFE/RL in Iraq, broadcasting from the network’s headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic.