Shaker, 43, a correspondent for the satellite channel Baghdad TV, left his home in Baghdad’s Al-Jamia neighborhood for work on the morning of June 27. He was waiting on the street for a friend to pick him up, a source at the station told CPJ, when a car carrying several gunmen came alongside and two armed occupants asked him to get in for questioning, the source said. His body was found on the street in the same neighborhood that afternoon, according to the source.
Shaker’s wife and three children fled the neighborhood and moved north of Baghdad.
The source said the gunmen were suspected members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and that Shaker was killed because he worked for Baghdad TV, a moderate Sunni channel that has been repeatedly targeted by both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups, according to staff.
Shaker worked at Baghdad TV for two years, the source told CPJ. The channel, owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, a large Sunni political group, had lost at least seven other employees since June 2005.