Alaa Hassan 1971 - 2006

    It is with deep sorrow that IPS announces the death of Alaa Hassan, who contributed to several IPS reports from Iraq. Alaa Hassan was fired on by gunmen on the way to work. It appears to be nothing personal - he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, part of the senseless violence engulfing Iraq.

    Alaa leaves behind a new wife who is pregnant. His wife (along with the rest of the extended family that had come to Baghdad) is leaving the capital for the family home in Babylon, where she hopes to be safer.

    We are in contact with the family, and will help them as much as we can to endure this tragic loss.

    Alaa was one of the local journalists who contributed to IPS from Iraq. Together with Aaron Glantz, he covered the increasing violence and sectarian divisions swallowing up Basra in the south of Iraq, the untold stories of Haditha, raided by the U.S. army last year; and the local reactions over the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

    While grief-stricken, we have to go on doing our duty if only as homage to such a courageous colleague. IPS is one of the few media organisations working with the perspective of the Iraqi citizen at ground level. That means working with people in the thick of all the troubles and the violence. We are as a result in a position to inform millions of people who rely on IPS for information on what really is happening in places like Iraq.

    The death of a journalist puts to test any media organisation. Even under the worst circumstances we have to stick to our mission, together.

    IPS honours Alaa Hassan, who was in the front line of news in the world's most difficult place.