Northern Ireland Journalist Shot Dead, ‘Targeted for Her Work’ Covering Unrest
Lyra McKee, a 29-year-old journalist in Northern Ireland, was fatally shot in the head late Thursday in the city of Derry, where riots had erupted and nationalist paramilitary forces traded fire with law enforcement. Local police have said they believe she was targeted by a dissident Republican group known as the New IRA, according to ITV News.
Violence has recently flared in the historically troubled city, where the Bloody Sunday massacre was carried out on Jan. 30, 1972. Car bombs, stabbings, and gun violence have marked a spate of violence tied to the new militant group that has surged in recent weeks.
McKee is the fourth high-profile European female journalist killed in the last two years, after Sweden’s Kim Wall, Malta’s Daphne Caruana Galizia, and Bulgaria’s Victoria Marinova.