|
Journos flee Iraq hotel
21/11/2003 20:00 - (SA)
Lisbon - Foreign journalists in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah have abandoned the hotel where they were based because of fears for their safety, Portuguese media reported on Friday.
Carlos Raleiras, a radio reporter with Portuguese radio station TSF, told the station the 25 reporters left the hotel on Friday morning on the advice of the Italian military contingent which is responsible for security in the region.
The journalists from Portugal, Italy, Romania and South Korea are now staying at an Italian military base on the outskirts of the city, he added.
"They are trying to create a little bit more space at this base, in these tents and old buildings, for us," Raleiras said.
Multiple rockets slammed into Baghdad's two main media hotels earlier on Friday, seriously wounding a US contractor.
It was the first serious attack against foreign news organisations in the Iraqi capital since the US-led spring invasion.
A reporter with Portuguese state television RTP told the Lusa news agency from Nasiriyah that the Italian military were beefing up security around the perimeter of the base.
A massive bomb attack on an Italian police post in Nasiriyah on November 12 killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis.
The city, located some 290km southeast of Baghdad, had been considered one of the more stable regions in Iraq until the attack.
- AFP
|
News
