BAGHDAD -- Gunmen shot and killed two Iraqi journalists, including one who was killed in his home near Fallujah along with seven family members, police and medical officials reported Wednesday.

Abdul-Rahman al-Essawi was killed Monday when gunmen broke into his home about 10 miles west of Fallujah, a former insurgent stronghold in Anbar province.

He was shot to death along with his wife, son, parents and three other relatives, said Dr. Anas al-Rawi of Fallujah General Hospital, where they bodies were taken.

In Amarah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, gunmen mowed down Nazar Abdul-Wahid as he stood on a city street Wednesday, according to a police official in the city who refused to give his name for fear of retribution from militants.

Abdul-Wahid worked as a reporter for several Iraqi newspapers and the Voices of Iraq Internet news agency.

The 33-year-old father of two was standing on the sidewalk in central Amarah when gunmen in a pickup truck shot him to death, police said.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 104 journalists and 39 media support workers have been killed and 48 journalists have been abducted since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, making it the deadliest conflict for the media in CPJ's 25-year history.

Sadr City Searched

Hundreds of Iraqi and U.S. troops cordoned off sections of Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood Wednesday and conducted a series of raids after five British citizens were abducted from a nearby government building, police and residents said.

The five men were pulled out of a Finance Ministry office by about 40 heavily armed men in police uniforms in broad daylight Tuesday and driven in a convoy of 19 four-wheel-drive vehicles toward Sadr City, according to Iraqi officials in the Interior and Finance ministries.

A senior Iraqi official said the radical Shiite Mahdi Army militia was suspected in the attack.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said officials were doing all they could to secure the "swift and safe return" of the five.

Mortar Attacks In Fallujah Kill 9 Civilians

At least nine Iraqi civilians in Fallujah were killed on Wednesday morning by mortar rounds that apparently missed the American base they were aimed at and landed in a residential area.

Police and medical officials said at least 15 people were wounded.

The attack sent many of the mortar rounds into a courthouse and nearby homes. Most of the casualties came from the courthouse.

Also on Wednesday, two guards were killed and two injured south of Baghdad when a police commander's convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in the town of Hamzah.

Police in the capital said another roadside bomb in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City apparently targeted a passing police patrol but missed, killing one civilian and wounding four others.

The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that two soldiers died May 28 in Baghdad of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their position during a dismounted patrol. Staff Sgt. Thomas M. McFall, 36, of Glendora, Calif., and Pfc. Junior Cedeno Sanchez, 20, of Miami, Fla. were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), in Fort Lewis, Wash.