Gunmen pull Iraqi journalist from taxi, kill her

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead an Iraqi reporter on Sunday after hauling her out of a taxi in Mosul, a notoriously violent city in northern Iraq where journalists are often targeted and live in fear of their lives.

Police said Serwa Abdul-Wahab, in her mid-30s, was on her way to work when gunmen forced her out of a taxi in east Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, and shot her in the head.

A colleague who declined to be named for fear of being attacked said she had received a text message on her phone three weeks earlier warning her to stop reporting or she'd be killed.

Yassir al-Hamadani, a friend of Abdul-Wahab's and the head of the Mosul branch of the Iraqi Association for Journalists' Rights, confirmed the police version of events.

"Abdul-Wahab worked with us and was an active defender of Iraqi journalists' rights. We're very sad to lose her," he said.

Police were not immediately able to say why anyone would want to target her. Fellow journalists said she was a contributor to www.muraslon.org, an Iraqi news website.

She also worked as a secretary for the electoral council, charged with preparing for Oct. 1 provincial elections.

Iraq, which witnessed significant growth in the media after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to work, according to New York-based journalism watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Iraqi journalists have been targeted because of their work or caught up in the cross-fire of Iraq's many-sided conflict.