Militants gun down Iraqi journalist

Gunmen killed an Iraqi journalist working for a US-funded television station and his son as they left their home today in the southern city of Basra.

Abdul Hussein al-Basri, correspondent of Al-Hurra, and his son were both killed in the Maqal area of Basra, 340 miles south-east of Baghdad.

Launched in February 2004 Al-Hurra, or The Free, was tailored for Arab audiences to compete with other regional stations like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. Some Muslim clerics have denounced the TV station as propaganda.

US President George Bush said it was created to “cut through the hateful propaganda that fills the airwaves in the Muslim world.”

Al-Basri was also a member of the political office of the Islamic Dawa Party, an influential Shiite movement, and the editor of a local newspaper in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city.

He also served as the head of the press office at Basra City Council.