Iraq hostages watch executions before release

BAQUBA, Iraq, May 26 (Reuters) Employees abducted from a television station in a town north of Baghdad today watched gunmen execute two policemen held with them before being released, one of the hostages said.

Ismail Mohammad, one of the hostages, said gunmen in uniforms worn by the Iraqi military stormed Diyala Television station and kidnapped two policemen along with the six employees, amongst whom were editors and technicians.

''After kidnapping us they took us to farmland south of Baquba, a very dangerous area where police are often attacked that is considered a stronghold of the insurgency,'' Mohammad, a journalist for the station in Baquba, told Reuters.

''They killed the policemen in our presence.'' More than 70 journalists, mostly Iraqis, have been killed in Iraq in the past three years, according to Western media rights organisations.

They have also fallen victim to a violent intimidation campaign amid rising sectarian bloodshed that has raised fears of civil war.

Baquba is a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.

REUTERS SHR ND1536