Chop chop
As predicted yesterday, the supposed deah of Nizar Khazraji in Najaf, alongside Abdel Majid al-Kho'i, appears to be (1) pure fabrication or (2) misinformation by Arab News, a branch of the Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper. No reports on al-Kho'is's death have even mentioned Khazraji.

However, Arab News did publish an article today praising its correspondent Essam al-Ghalib for the following:

Yesterday, he broke as a world exclusive on www.arabnews.com the news that Shiite scholar Abdul Majid Al-Khoei had been killed in Najaf's Ali Mosque, after taking eye witness accounts from Iraqis who had just witnessed the scene.

In contrast to American briefings, which put the incident down to "Shiite sectarianism," Essam told the truth: That Al-Khoei had been butchered — literally cut to pieces with knives and swords -- by Iraqis who accused him of being "an American stooge."

Yes, but he or someone else on Arab News also broke as a World Exclusive (though the world paid no attention) that Khazraji too had been bumped off, so we'll wait a few days before applauding Essam, whose photo appears here, apparently after he was "was ambushed in his jeep by bandits, shot at from close range, and then robbed of almost all his belongings."