American journalist found shot dead in Basra

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – An American journalist and author has
been found shot dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a
Western diplomat said on Wednesday.

The diplomat told Reuters the next of kin of Steven Vincent
had been notified and an investigation was underway to
determine who was behind the death.

The diplomat said he believed Vincent’s body was found on
Tuesday.

Vincent was the author of a book on postwar Iraq and was
researching another book about the history of Basra, where
British troops are based.

An opinion piece he wrote criticizing the rise of Shi’ite
Islamist fundamentalism in Basra was published in The New York
Times four days ago.
The article criticizes the failure of British forces to clamp
down on what Vincent described as a city that was “increasingly
coming under the control of Shi’ite religious groups, from the
relatively mainstream … to the bellicose followers of the
rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.”