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IRAQ: Killer of prominent TV journalist confesses
Babylon & Beyond ^ | Aug 4 2009 | Liz Sly and Saif Hameed

Posted on 08/05/2009 12:03:03 AM PDT by forkinsocket

A member of an extremist Sunni group has confessed to the 2006 rape and murder of prominent Iraqi TV reporter Atwar Bahjat, whose brutal death at the height of the sectarian violence shocked even battle-scarred Iraqis.

The confession was made in a videotape broadcast at a press conference today. Suspect Yasser al-Takhi described how he and three others abducted and killed Bahjat and her two-man crew, Adnan Abdullah and Khaled Mohsen, in the central Iraqi town of Samarra.

His two brothers also confessed to killing Abdullah and Mohsen.

Bahjat, who worked for the Arabiya TV network, had gone to Samarra to report on the aftermath of the bombing of a Shiite shrine that ignited a mass campaign of killings against Sunnis by Shiite militiamen.

Her bravery as a journalist at a time when few reporters dared move around touched hearts across Iraq and her death turned her into a national heroine. Moments before the network lost touch with her, she had reported live from the scene, noticeably wearing a gold pendant depicting a map of Iraq around her neck – a symbol widely adopted at the time by Iraqis lamenting the disintegration of their nation into sectarian strife.

Takhi said that the group drove the news team to a side street where he raped and shot Bahjat. His brothers killed Abdullah and Mohsen.

"We parked beside the main street. I asked the girl to step out and I told her, 'You are pretty and I like you, and I want to have sex with you,'" he said, according to a translation of the video by Agence France Presse. When Bahjat refused, "I put the pistol to her head and I raped her…. Then, I finished, took her and killed her."

(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraq; journalist; samarra; sunnis
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1 posted on 08/05/2009 12:03:03 AM PDT by forkinsocket
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To: forkinsocket

No credit will go to our guys fighting these scum.


2 posted on 08/05/2009 12:55:29 AM PDT by Leisler
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To: forkinsocket

Take this worthless animal and give him “The Saddam Treatment.”


3 posted on 08/05/2009 12:57:16 AM PDT by coydog (Proud to have slept through the Obama coronation!)
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To: forkinsocket

Islam is a religion of peace


4 posted on 08/05/2009 2:32:49 AM PDT by Proud_USA_Republican ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.")
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To: forkinsocket

It is claimed that Mohammed moderated the excesses of the Arabs.

?


5 posted on 08/05/2009 6:09:41 AM PDT by Judges Gone Wild (Who is this uncircumcised, to oppose the armies of The Living God?)
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To: forkinsocket

It is claimed that Mohammed moderated the excesses of the Arabs.

?


6 posted on 08/05/2009 6:10:15 AM PDT by Judges Gone Wild (Who is this uncircumcised, to oppose the armies of The Living God?)
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