Roadside bomb kills Iraqi journalist

BAGHDAD – An Iraqi television cameraman for a Shiite-backed satellite news station was killed today when a roadside bomb detonated near a security checkpoint in Balad, about 50 miles north of the capital.

The blast also killed a driver and seriously injured a female reporter, who remains hospitalized, the station said.

Alaa Abdul-Kareem Fartusi, 29, is the first journalist to die this year in Iraq, in what has become the deadliest and most dangerous place to cover a story, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Fartusi, who had worked at the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council-funded station Al Furat for two years, is survived by a wife and two daughters, ages 1 and 3.

“Apart from being a colleague, he was a very good friend,” said Al Furat reporter Ahmed Mehdi. “He was always optimistic, always happy. If there was sadness, he would be the one smiling trying to console everyone. We miss him as a friend more than anything else.”

Fartusi was part of a crew traveling to Samarra for a story commemorating the February 2006 bombing of the Golden Mosque, one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq. They left Baghdad on Monday and spent the night in Balad. They were headed the rest of the way to Samarra this morning when the bomb struck their Dodge van, Mehdi said.

The station does not believe the crew was specifically targeted, Mehdi said.

At least 126 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq – more than have been killed covering any other conflict, according to the statistics compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In addition, 51 journalists have been kidnapped and 50 media support workers – including drivers, bodyguards and translators – have been killed in Iraq.

kimi.yoshino@latimes.com

Times staff writer Said Rifai and correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.