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Gunmen shoot Iraqi Kurdish journalist: media watchdog

BAGHDAD, Sept 1, 2008 (AFP) - An Iraqi Kurdish journalist was seriously wounded when gunmen dressed in military uniforms shot him in his Baghdad home last month, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Monday.

Sadeq Jaafar Bashir, a journalist with Kurdish monthly magazine Araa, was hit in the stomach and arm but his sister was killed when seven gunmen opened fire on them on August 24, the Paris-based group said in a statement.

Bashir's mother and his sister's three-year-old daughter were also wounded in the attack, it said.

The gunmen entered Bashir's home saying they wanted to search the place before opening fire, it added.

"Jaafar Bashir was admitted to Madinat al-Tib hospital in the capital where he underwent an operation to remove bullets from his stomach and he has been left facing the loss of the use of his left hand," the statement said.

Reporters Without Borders called for an investigation into the attack, saying "journalists are not only targeted when they are out and about but from now on they are also in danger in their own homes."

Quoting Bashir, it said the police had "failed to interview him about the shooting a week later and complained at the slowness of their investigation."

At least 217 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the start of the Us-led war in March 2003, it added.