Bodies of three Iraqi journalists discovered

THE bodies of three Iraqi journalists, including a correspondent for Al-Arabiya television, were found yesterday near Samarra, police and the network said.

Al-Arabiya’s Atwar Bahjat and two colleagues from a local media company were covering Wednesday’s bombing of a Shi’ite shrine. Their employers lost contact with them that night.

The bullet-riddled bodies of Ms Bahjat, engineer Adnan Khairullah and cameraman Khalid Mahmoud were found yesterday near their vehicle, cameras and satellite dish on the outskirts of the city 60 miles north of Baghdad, police Captain Laith Muhammad said.