Al-Tamimi, head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate,
died of complications from injuries suffered in a targeted shooting in Baghdad
on February 23. Jabbar Tarrad al-Shimmari, deputy head of the Iraqi Journalists
Syndicate, told CPJ that al-Tamimi, 74, died from a stroke four days after the
attack.
Unidentified gunmen in a white Opel intercepted and opened
fire on a car carrying al-Tamimi, his son and driver, Rabie, and an
unidentified colleague riding in the backseat. The three were on their way from
the syndicate’s headquarters to a meeting in Baghdad’s Al-Waziriya
neighborhood, the journalist’s nephew, Arfan Jalil Karim, told CPJ. The son was
shot several times and hospitalized, Karim told CPJ. The third occupant was not
injured, he said.
Al-Tamimi had received prior threats. Al-Shimmari said that
al-Tamimi received a threat in 2005 during which the caller told him he would
be killed the following day. The journalist went into hiding for a month after
that. About six months ago, al-Tamimi received calls both on his cell phone and
land line threatening his life, according to Karim.
Al-Tamimi, who headed the syndicate since 2003, had been a
critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its continued presence there, according
to Reuters. He is survived by his wife and three children.