Also in Basra, an Iraqi reporter working for the New York Times was found shot dead on Monday. The reporter — Fakher Haider — had been handcuffed and taken away from his home Sunday night by four masked men. Last week a 28-year-old Iraqi reporter for the newspaper As-Saffir, was kidnapped in the northern city of Mosul. Police found her body the next morning with a single bullet wound to the head.