The chief of Reuters' Baghdad bureau has fleed Iraq after he was threatened on social media following a Reuters report on lynching and looting in the city of Tikrit, the news agency has reported.
Threats appreared on an Iraqi Facebook page run by a group that calls itself "The Hammer" against journalist Ned Parker. It is thought to be linked to armed Shiite groups, according to an Iraqi security source.
The original post was put up on April 5. The post and comments that followed demanded the journalist be expelled from Iraq, with one commenter saying that killing him would be "the best way to silence him, not kick him out."
Three days later a television station owned by Iranian-backed armed group Asaib Ahl al-Haq broadcast part of a show accusing the journalist of unfairly criticizing Iraq and its government-backed forces, and called on viewers to demand Parker be expelled.
Parker reported on human rights abuses in Tikrit after government forces and Iranian-backed militias freed the city from Daesh (ISIS.)
