| The U.S. military, citing unconfirmed reports, said that three journalists covering the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq had been killed or injured during hostilities in southern Iraq on Saturday.
U.S. Army General Guy Shields, director of the Coalition Press Information Center in Kuwait, said he had reports that reporters came under fire in four separate incidents while operating independently of U.S. or British forces.
"We have had phone calls from journalists who have called the press desk while under fire screaming for help," he told a news briefing.
"We have unverified reports that these incidents have resulted in at least three serious injuries or deaths. I'm calling the incidents unverified because we don't have any way of tracking unilateral media who have snuck across the border."
"It is a dangerous place out there."
He urged such journalists, most of whom are based in Kuwait, not to cross the border into southern Iraq until the area was judged safe.
He said there was a big difference between securing a place militarily and removing every single "bad person with a gun."
In northern Iraq a car bomb exploded close to the border with Iran, killing an Australian TV cameraman and one other person. Kurdish officials blamed the attack on Ansar al-Islam, an Islamist group the United States accuses of having links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Shields listed the reported incidents in southern Iraq as follows:
Twenty-four journalists traveling in a convoy reported coming under fire in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr and had to be rescued by U.S. forces who escorted them to safety in the Kuwait-Iraq border area.
Two vehicles carrying media also came under fire in the same area later in the day. There were reports of journalists being detained by Iraqis and possibly wounded. There was an additional report of journalists under fire near Nassiriya.
Shields' office has accredited 529 journalists to travel with U.S. and British land forces invading Iraq and 1,445 journalists to cover the war as "unilaterals," in other words operating independently of the combatants.
Source: Reuters | |
