Gunmen kill journalist in Iraq's Mosul

BAGHDAD, June 8 (Reuters) A journalist working with the independent Aswat al-Iraq news agency in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was killed by gunmen, the agency said.

Sahar al-Haideri was married with three daughters, the agency said. Her body was found in the al-Hadbaa neighborhood of northeastern Mosul.

''Unknown armed people killed her today at noon,'' Aswat al-Iraq (Voice of Iraq) said in a statement yesterday.

New York-based media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the killing and said the gunmen who murdered her had answered her cell phone afterwards and told the caller ''she went to hell.'' Journalists have been dying in record numbers in Iraq, with at least 12 killed in May, the highest monthly total since the start of the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, according to media watchdogs.

Aswat al-Iraq said Haideri's name had been on a ''death list'' of journalists issued by the local leader of the al Qaeda-led militant group, Islamic State in Iraq.

Another Aswat al-Iraq journalist, Nazar al-Radhi, was among the journalists killed in May.

Joel Simon, CPJ's executive director, said Haideri had worked with the media group which helped relocate her husband and family to Syria after recent threats.

''The constant threats and abductions she endured, and her eventual murder, are stark reminders of the sacrifice she made to tell the Iraqi story to the world,'' Simon said in a statement.

''In her final e-mail to CPJ, on March 22, Haidari said her name was fourth on a death list comprised of journalists and police officers. It had been circulated throughout Mosul and posted on her house door,'' the CPJ statement said.

The group said at least 106 journalists, including Haidari, and 39 media support staff had been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

REUTERS JK PM0425