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TweetThey condemn terrorism in the name of islam, trying to show islam can be peaceful. For their efforts, their fellow muslims kill them. Happy ramadan to all, indeed.
BAGHDAD – The TV show is one of the country’s most popular, a form of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in which a television crew surprises needy Iraqis with food and gifts during the holy month of Ramadan.
On Saturday, as Sharqiya TV personnel zeroed in on a family reeling from losses, kidnappers zeroed in on them. Hours later, three people from the station and their driver were found shot to death on the outskirts of Mosul, a northern city that has been plagued by al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups.
Elsewhere in the country, bombs killed at least 12 more people.
The abduction happened as Farida Adil, a host of Breaking Your Fast Is on Us, waited in an apartment with the family that was to be featured in the next episode: a woman with six children, whose husband had died in a January bombing.
Ms. Adil was about to go outside when someone told her the crew had been abducted. She covered her hair with a scarf, put on a long black abaya and slipped away.
“They were like my brothers,” she said later, weeping.
No one immediately took responsibility for the slayings. By Saturday night, police had arrested five suspects.
Sharqiya TV, which broadcasts via satellite from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is popular for its mix of satire poking fun at Iraq’s government, news, sitcoms, soap operas and reality shows.
It airs ads that condemn terrorism and herald cooperation between Iraqis and U.S. forces, which could make it a target of Sunni Muslim insurgents. But the channel also has been accused by Iraq’s Shiite-led government of exhibiting sympathy for deposed President Saddam Hussein.
Los Angeles Times
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