'Alive in Baghdad' Special Correspondent Ali Shafeya Killed

It’s fourth months away from the March 19, 2008 Five Year Anniversary of the launch of the US invasion of Iraq, and over that time we’ve had to endure an unfortunate number of sobering experiences. The death of 22 year-old Alive in Baghdad correspondent Ali Shafeya is one that has hit particularly close to home.

Brian Conley, the creator of the citizen journalism effort that’s revolutionizing the way news is reported by empowering locals to report on local events, is updating the full story as he obtains information:

“Ali lived in Habibya, it’s considered as a part of the Sadr city. On Friday the 14th at 11:30pm Baghdad time, Iraqi National Guard forces raided the street where Ali’s house is, one of the neighbors heard a gun firing after 15 minutes from the arrival of the Iraqi National Guard convoy to the street, the force left at 3:00am. His neighbors kept calling Ali’s phone and it was switched off all the time, so they called his cousin Amar because he lives one block away from where Ali lives.

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Amar arrived in Ali’s house and found Ali shoot dead in the living room, Amar called the Iraqi Police and told them the story as he heard it from Ali’s neighbors. At 8:30 am Baghdad time the Iraqi Police took Ali’s body to the morgue, his two uncles received the body at 10:00am and they headed to Najaf to bury him.

Amar said his neighbor who lives in the front of his house was shot dead too during that raid, the guy’s name is Hussein and he is 26 years old. He was in his place along with his brother and nephew. The brother and the nephew disappeared after the convoy left.  The morgue report says that Ali took 31 bullets between the chest and the head and died immediately. He will be missed and remembered.”

See the Alive in Baghdad blog for more updates. 

Conley is also collecting donations to cover funeral costs for Ali’s mother and sister who are displaced Iraqis living in Syria. Ali’s two brothers were killed in the Firdos Square bombing in 2005.

You can make a donation to smallworldnews AT gmail.com via Paypal.