Alaa Abdulkareem Fartusi (4 August 1978 – 10 February 2008) was an Iraqi journalist for Al Forat, a Shiite-backed satellite news station.[1]
Fartusi had worked as a camera man for Al Forat for two years prior to his death in 2008.[2] Fellow Al Forat reporter Ahmed Mehdi said of him:
See main article: 2008 Balad bombing. Fartusi was part of a crew traveling to Samarra for a story commemorating the 2nd anniversary of the February 2006 bombing of the Golden Mosque, one of the holiest Shiite sites in Iraq. On 10 February 2008, while travelling to Samarra, a roadside bomb was detonated, killing Fartusi and the driver of the vehicle in which he was travelling. According to Mehdi, Fartusi and his team were probably not targeting the station.[2] The first journalist killed in Iraq in 2008, Fartusi was survived by his wife and two children.[2]