Journos warned against Baghdad
08/04/2003 21:36  - (SA)  

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Washington - The Pentagon warned on Tuesday that war zones could be lethal for reporters but said it was saddened by media deaths in the Iraq war, hours after three journalists were killed in US attacks on Baghdad.

The Pentagon said it was saddened by all deaths among journalists after US fire on the Iraqi capital killed employees of al-Jazeera, Reuters news agency and Spanish network Telecinco.

But defence officials in Washington provided no explanation of why US forces targeted the Palestine hotel in the Iraqi capital - a known base for journalists and premises used by the al-Jazeera television network.

"I'd like to express again the department's condolences to the families and friends of the journalists who have been killed in this war.

They have been doing very, very important work, and we're saddened by their deaths," said Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke.

Baghdad 'is a dangerous place'

But she stressed that the Pentagon had repeatedly warned of the dangers of journalists not "embedded" with US forces remaining in Baghdad to cover the war.

"(The) war zone is a dangerous place; Baghdad in particular we believed would be a dangerous place.

"We continue to warn people, we continue to warn news organisations about the dangers.

"We've had conversations over the last couple of days, news organisations eager to get their people unilaterally into Baghdad. We are saying it is not a safe place, you should not be there."

US tank shot into media hotel

A US tank earlier shot into the upper floors of Baghdad's Palestine hotel after saying US forces were fired on from the lobby, US Central Command later claimed there had been "significant enemy fire."

Journalists in the hotel said they did not hear any sniper fire directed towards US forces from the hotel.

Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman with Reuters and Jose Couso from Spanish network Telecinco, were killed at the hotel. Three other Reuters staff were injured.

In a separate incident, a US missile crashed into the offices of al-Jazeera in downtown Baghdad, killing Tareq Ayub, a correspondent with the Arabic-language satellite channel, and wounding one of its cameramen.

Media watchdog groups around the world have condemned the attack.

- AFX

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