news.com.au Article: Militants blow up radio station - again

MILITANTS blew up an independent radio station in Baghdad on Friday, destroying the offices but causing no casualties, its director said, a day after heavily armed men killed one person and wounded two at the same station.

Karim Yousef, the acting director-general of Radio Dijla in western Al-Jamia district, told Reuters the blast occurred at around 10 p.m. He said the station, the target of many previous assaults, was empty when the attack took place.

A police source said the gunmen first stole equipment and then set off a bomb.

"There was nobody at the station. All the employees had left yesterday," Mr Yousef said.

On Thursday, dozens of armed gunmen stormed the station, killing one guard and setting off an explosive that destroyed broadcast equipment and knocked the station off the air.

Iraq remains the most dangerous country for journalists, and 46 were killed last year, mostly Iraqis, in bombings, abductions and drive-by shootings, twice as many as in 2005, according to the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI).

Journalists are repeatedly attacked by sectarian death squads and insurgents intent on silencing their voices, media watch groups say.

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