BAGHDAD (AP) - Gunmen killed a Kurdish journalist near the northern city of Kirkuk, a police official said Tuesday. Soran Mama Hama, a reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot late Monday in the Rasheed Awa village, where many Kurds were forced to relocate when Saddam Hussein sent thousands of Arabs into the oil-rich Kirkuk area to dilute the presence of Kurds and others.Kirkuk police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said the motive for the slaying of the 23-year-old journalist was not immediately known.
Qadir said gunmen killed the journalist. But the U.S. military gave a differing account, saying he was killed by a bomb. The reason for the conflicting reports was not immediately clear.
Reporters Without Borders said Hama had often covered government corruption for the magazine. He had written an article in the latest issue that was about the involvement of Kurdish officials in prostitution rings, according to the Paris-based advocacy organization. "He wrote hard-hitting articles about local politicians and security officials and had received threats from people telling him to stop his investigative reporting. The authorities should therefore give priority to the theory that he was killed because of his work," the group said.