Iraqi editor shot dead in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, March 4 (Reuters) An Iraqi journalist today was shot dead outside his home in a Sunni neighbourhood in western Baghdad, neighbours and colleagues at his newspaper said.

They said Mohan al-Dhaher, a senior editor at the independent al-Mashriq daily newspaper, had just left his house to go to work when gunmen in two vehicles pulled up and tried to kidnap him.

When Dhaher resisted, the gunmen shot him dead, they said.

Dhaher, who was about 50, was married and had four children, his neighbours said.

The body of another journalist, Jamal al-Zubeidi, editor-in -chief of the al-Safeer newspaper, was found last week in a Shi'ite area of Baghdad, a local journalists association said. It said Zubeidi was kidnapped on February. 24 from central Baghdad.

Iraq was by far the deadliest country for journalists in 2006, with 32 killed, according to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

REUTERS SHB PM1445