Two Iraqi journalists 'killed in Damascus'

The bodies of two Iraqi journalists, who were stabbed and shot dead in Damascus, were handed over at a border post with Syria on Monday, officials said.

"Two Iraqi journalists, Ali Juburi al-Kaabi and Falah Taha, were killed by knives and bullets in Jaramana area," Colonel Abdelbasit al-Hilo, the Iraqi commander of Al-Waleed border post, told AFP, referring to a suburb of Damascus.

"The (Syrian) intelligence and police handed them over with the medical report of the hospital to Al-Waleed outpost today. They were killed the day before yesterday (Saturday)."

Al-Waleed border post lies at the southern edge of Iraq's border with Syria and is referred to as Tenef on the Syrian side.

Hilo said the two men carried identification documents from the Iraqi Journalists' Union, but it was not clear who they worked for.

He added that the Iraqi interior ministry had been informed, and that the two men's families were being sought to collect their bodies.

Another security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the account that the border post received the bodies of two Iraqi men, and also said that the pair were journalists.