11 killed at Iraqi TV station

BAGHDAD -- Suspected Shi'ite militiamen, some dressed as police, broke into a television station and gunned down 11 Iraqi executives, producers, and other staff members yesterday -- the deadliest attack against the media in this country, where at least 81 other journalists have been killed in the past three years.

The station, Shaabiya, was new and had not started full broadcasting. So far it had aired only test programming of nationalist songs, including ones against the U S military presence in Iraq. That may have led Shi'ite militiamen to suspect it of a pro-Sunni ideology.

The brazen, morning attack underlined the danger for the media in a country where causing offense to one side or another can be a death sentence.

In another attack on Iraqi media, the body of a Kurdish radio reporter was identified at a morgue. Azad Mohammed Hussein, 29, was kidnapped in the capital Oct. 3. His body was found Tuesday.

About two dozen gunmen, some in police uniforms, pulled up to the Shaabiya offices at 7 a.m. yesterday in civilian cars, stormed into the building and killed most of those inside, said the station's executive director, Hassan Kamil, who was not there at the time.

The gunmen fired some 100 shots, Kamil said. But survivors reported not hearing any shots and no windows were damaged, suggesting the attackers may have used silenced pistols and killed at close range, he said.

Kamil said he could not speculate on who was behind the attack and said the station had received no threats. He insisted the station had no sectarian bent and pointed out that the staff was a mixture of Shi'ites, Sunnis, and Kurds.

But there were signs Shi'ite militiamen were behind the assault. Many kidnap-slayings of Sunnis have been carried out by gunmen in police uniforms and Sunnis accuse the mainly Shi'ite police force of helping the death squads.

At least 81 journalists, 60 of them Iraqi, have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 U S invasion of Iraq, according to an Associated Press tally. That surpasses the 66 killed in Vietnam, and the 68 killed during World War II.

The deaths come amid a wave of violence in Iraq by both insurgents and militias. At least 34 Iraqis were killed in violence around the country yesterday.

Britain's new army chief called for a withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, warning that the military's presence there only exacerbates security problems, according to an interview.

General Richard Dannatt described British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Iraq policies as ``naive," declaring that while Iraqis might have welcomed coalition forces following the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the good will has since evaporated after years of violence.

The British military should ``get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems," Dannatt said. ``Whatever consent we may have had in the first place" from the Iraqi people ``has largely turned to intolerance. "

The British government has not yet set a timetable for the departure of its 7,500 forces.