Alaa Abdul Kareem buried in Najaf

Alaa Abdul Kareem, who was killed on Tuesday when a bomb went off on the road between Balad and Samarra, was buried in Najaf yesterday. Kareem had been working for the TV station, Al Furat. Asad Khadhim, Chief Correspondent for the station, talked to the New York Times about his funeral,

Mr. Kareem was married and had three young daughters. He lived in the large Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad and had worked as a photographer before joining Al Furat. “He was smiling all the time, God bless him, he was so lovely,” Mr. Khadhim said. “His colleagues cannot work today because he is not there.”
He added, sadly, “When we got the news of his death, we searched for a picture to put it with what we wrote about him, but we could not find any without his smile.”
Mr. Kareem’s body was taken Wednesday to the Shiite holy city of Najaf for burial. He is the first journalist killed this year in Iraq, which ranks as the most dangerous for journalists, according to the Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders. link

Kareem is the first journalist killed in Iraq this year. The roadside bomb also leaves a driver dead and a reporter injured.