Sulaimaniyah:
A journalist has been found shot dead in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, said police and political party officials on Friday.
Shoukri Zeneldin had been working in Dohuk for KNN, alocal television channel owned by the Goran (Change) movement,one of the region's main political parties. "His family informed us that his body was found on Thursday after he disappeared four days ago," Goran spokesman Abdul Razak Sharif said.
The 40-year-old journalist's body was found in a desert village in the Amadiya region, north of Dohuk, said policespokesman Hayman Atroushi. Goran lawmaker Hoshyar Abdallah called the journalist's death "a real threat to the truth" and a "set back fordemocracy".
Goran has 24 MPs in the autonomous region's 111-seatparliament, having emerged as a third force to challenge the traditional parties.
It is now one of the region's top three parties, alongwith the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional leader Massud Barzani. Iraq is among the most dangerous places in the world forjournalists.
