Sarhan, editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Akhbar al-Mosul, a local newspaper in the city of Mosul, was gunned down by assailants near his home, which doubled as the newspaper’s office, according to local journalists and one local government official familiar with the case. The sources could not provide a precise date for his death.
Those sources said Sarhan may have been targeted because of suspicions that his newspaper had received U.S. funding. According to one Mosul reporter, Sarahan’s name was included on an insurgent “hit list” of local journalists that was posted in some local mosques in 2004.