30 October 2004
Ali Adnan, Hassan Alwan, Ramziya Moushee, Alahin Hussein, and Nabil Hussein
Explosion
Car bomb attack against the Baghdad bureau of the Dubai-based satellite broadcaster Al-Arabiya killed five station employees, and more than a dozen other Al-Arabiya employees were wounded in the apparent insurgent attack.
Those killed were Ali Adnan, a security guard; Hassan Alwan, an engineer; kitchen staff members Ramziya Moushee and Alahin Hussein; and Nabil Hussein, a gardener. Al-Arabiya reporter Najwa
Qassem said 14 other bureau employees, among them five journalists, were wounded in the blast.
The bureau, in the upscale Mansour neighborhood, was used by two other Saudi-owned news stations - the satellite channel Al-Akhbariya and Al-Arabiya's sister channel, Middle East Broadcasting (MBC). Al-Arabiya's Web site reported that a previously unknown group calling itself the "Jihad Martyrs Brigades" claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on the Internet.
The statement called Saturday's attack "just a warning" and threatened more attacks on Al-Arabiya and other media outlets in Iraq. The statement's authenticity could not be independently verified.
About 35 staffers were meeting on the first floor when the bomb exploded directly outside the bureau's front entrance.
The blast, which took place in a neighborhood that also houses Iraqi officials and government buildings, left a large crater in the street outside and collapsed the building's first floor, causing a fire. Al-Arabiya's Web site reported that the station has received numerous threats from those describing themselves as supporters of "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi", protesting its coverage and demanding that the station support the "jihad" against the U.S occupation and Iraqi government.
