A Shia journalist working for a US-funded television channel and his three-year-old son were murdered today in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Abdul Hussein al-Basri and his son were shot dead as they left their home. He worked for the television station al-Hurra, "The Free", which was launched a year ago to compete with other regional stations like al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya.

President Bush said it was created to "cut through the hateful propaganda that fills the airwaves in the Muslim world". However some Muslim clerics have denounced the channel as propaganda.

Al-Basri was a member of the Islamic Dawa Party, an influential Shia movement, and the editor of a local newspaper in Basra. He was also head of the press office at Basra City Council.

Sunni Muslim militants, many dedicated to the extremist Wahabi cult that originated in Saudi Arabia, are deliberately targeting Shias in Iraq in the hopes of fomenting sectarian violence and civil war.

Gunmen also abducted a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official today. Colonel Riyadh Katei Aliwi was dragged from his car in southern Baghdad.

Attacks by militant groups have steadily risen since the January 30 elections when a massive US and Iraqi security operation prevented insurgents from disrupting the vote.

Yesterday a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a crowd of army recruits, killing 21 people. The explosion marks a shift in tactics by the insurgents from car bombs to human bombs, strapping explosives on the bodies of volunteers to penetrate the network of blast walls, checkpoints and other security measures designed to block vehicle bombs.

On Monday, a suicide bomber walked into a crowd of Iraqi policemen in the northern city of Mosul and detonated explosives, killing 12 of them.

An internet statement from a group led by Jordanian terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attack on the recruiting centre. "This is the beginning of the escalation we promised you," the statement said.

Today brought good news however about the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, 56, who was kidnapped in Baghdad last week. Her employers at the left-wing daily newspaper Il Manifesto said that she is alive and well.

"A person has been able to see Giuliana twice, first on Monday then on Tuesday morning, and has indicated that she is in good health," the paper wrote. It added that she was being "held by the Sunni resistance in a zone outside of Baghdad". It did not say who had visited the reporter.

Yesterday one of Iraq's many militant groups claimed in an internet statement that it had executed Sgrena. The statement was treated with caution, however, as it was not made by the group that claimed to have kidnapped her.

A source close to the Italian intelligence service, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that although no official negotiations were taking place with Sgrena’s captors,"a mediation channel is being tried out".

Sgrena, a veteran Middle East correspondent, was abducted Friday after visiting a Baghdad mosque where refugees have been encamped since the American-led assault on the city of Fallujah in November.

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