Al Arabiya says 3 TV crew members killed in Iraq

DUBAI, Feb 23 (Reuters) Gunmen kidnapped and killed a correspondent for Al Arabiya television and two members of her crew in Iraq, the Arabic channel's news editor said today.

Nakhle al-Haj of the Dubai-based channel said Al Arabiya had lost contact with correspondent Atwar Bahjat, an Iraqi citizen, and her three-man team late yesterday after they had left the Iraqi city of Samarra.

Haj said that, during the ambush, one of the crewmen managed to escape from the kidnappers and inform police.

''The police later found their bodies and they are now in the Samarra hospital,'' he added.

Al Arabiya named the other dead team members as cameraman Adnan Abdullah and soundman Khaled Mohsen and said they worked for an Iraqi production company.

It was not clear if the deaths were related to yesterday's bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra, which has triggered revenge attacks on Arab Sunnis and their mosques.

REUTERS CS SSC1249