ABC News Loses Two Journalists; Iraq Loses Two of Her Finest Sons

Iraq continues to be the most dangerous assignment in the world for journalists, especially for local Iraqi journalists and media support professionals.

Last Thursday, ABC News lost two of its broadcast journalists. Unidentified gunmen in two cars ambushed and killed cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz, 33, and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf, 26, on their way home from the network’s Baghdad bureau.

"They are really our eyes and ears in Iraq," ABC's Terry McCarthy said of the contribution each made to ABC News. "Many places in Baghdad are just too dangerous for foreigners to go now, so we have Iraqi camera crews who very bravely go out … without them we are blind, we cannot see what's going on."

"Today we've lost two family members. It really hurts," McCarthy said.

Aziz is survived by his wife, his two daughters and his mother. Yousuf leaves behind his fiancée, his mother and brothers and sisters.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that "at least 104 journalists, including Aziz and Yousuf, and 39 media support staffers have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, making Iraq the deadliest conflict for the press in CPJ’s 26-year history. About four in five journalist deaths there have been Iraqis."