Gunmen kill Iraqi TV staff in Mosul - September 14, 2008

Gunmen kidnapped and shot dead three Iraqi journalists from Iraq's Sharqiya TV station along with their driver in the volatile northern city of Mosul yesterday, the station and police said.

It was one of the single deadliest militant attacks on journalists in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

The shootings mark a violent two days in which dozens have been killed in gun and bomb attacks mainly in northern Iraq - underscoring the security challenges the government faces even as violence has fallen to lows not seen since early 2004.

Two roadside bombs killed at least eight people in Baghdad and Diyala province northeast of the capital yesterday.

Late on Friday, a car bomb apparently targeting people on the streets breaking their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan killed 30 people and wounded 47 in Dujail in northern Salahuddin province.

"Today at noon, armed people kidnapped and killed four of our workers in the channel," Sharqiya, an independent channel based in Dubai and known for its criticism of the Iraqi government, said in a statement read by one of its presenters.

It said the dead were its chief Mosul correspondent Musab Mahmoud al-Azawi, two cameramen and a driver.