Two Iraqi reporters slain by masked assailants

NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) Two Iraqi journalists were killed in separate attacks by masked assailants last weekend, media watchdog The Committee to Protect Journalists has said.

One of the murders, that of al-Alam television station correspondent Adel al-Mansouri, was reported on Tuesday by police and his employers.

The CPJ said a second journalist, Riyad Muhammad Ali, a reporter for the local weekly Tal Afar al-Yawm, was shot by unidentified assailants in Mosul on Sunday.

''CPJ is seeking to determine whether the slaying was directly related to Ali's work,'' the New-York based group said in a statement yesterday. ''Ali was a well-known reporter working for one of the few major local papers in the town.'' The watchdog group condemned the murders, it said.

More than 70 foreign and Iraqi journalists have been reported killed since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

The real number is believed to be higher and the list does not include the many translators, drivers and other assistants said by media watchdogs to have died since the conflict began.

The CPJ said according to its tally, 75 journalists and 27 media support workers have been killed since the war began.

''As sectarian violence spirals, journalists of all backgrounds appear to be targeted, adding to the extraordinary danger facing the press in Iraq,'' CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement.

REUTERS VJ RK0503