Reuters Journalist Killed in Baghdad Hotel Blast 1 hour, 57 minutes ago
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A Reuters journalist was killed and three were wounded in Baghdad on Tuesday when a U.S. tank fired a shell at the media hotel where they were working.
A Spanish journalist was also wounded.
Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, 35, a Ukrainian national based in Warsaw, died after the blast at the Palestine Hotel, base for much of the foreign media in the Iraqi capital.
U.S. forces said one of their tanks had fired on the hotel after taking incoming sniper and rocket fire, though journalists reported hearing no such fire from the hotel.
U.S. military officials expressed regret at the incident.
"A tank was receiving small arms fire and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) fire from the hotel and engaged the target with one tank round," General Buford Blount, commander of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad, told Reuters.
Samia Nakhoul, Lebanese-born Gulf bureau chief for Reuters, and Iraqi photographer Faleh Kheiber were both treated in hospital for facial and head wounds and concussion. Doctors said their injuries were not serious.
Television satellite dish coordinator Paul Pasquale, from Britain, was taken to hospital with leg injuries but doctors said he was not in danger.
The four were part of the 18-member Reuters team in Baghdad.
"We are devastated by the death of Taras, who had distinguished himself with his highly professional coverage in some of the most violent conflicts of the past decade," said Reuters Editor-in-Chief Geert Linnebank.
He had reported from Chechnya (news - web sites), Afghanistan (news - web sites) and the Balkans.
Madrid's Telecinco television said that its cameraman, Jose Couso, was wounded in the jaw and leg and was taken to hospital, where he underwent surgery for shrapnel wounds.
U.S. officials said their forces had been fired on from the hotel but a British reporter there who saw the tank take aim said he had heard no other firing.
"I never heard a single shot coming from any of the area around here, certainly not from the hotel," British Sky television's correspondent David Chater said.
The blast struck an upper floor of the high-rise building on the eastern banks of the Tigris river.
U.S. tanks, artillery and warplanes have been pounding Iraqi forces in the city center all morning. Iraqis have fired back with some artillery and rocket-propelled grenades.
A thin column of smoke rose from the hotel. Glass shards from hotel windows fell to the ground.
Journalists carried wounded colleagues out of the hotel on blood-stained bedsheets.
GUN MUZZLE POINTS
In a live report on air, Sky's Chater said he was on a hotel balcony just before the explosion and noticed a U.S. tank pointing its gun muzzle directly at the hotel -- but turned away just before the blast.
"One of the tanks had its barrel pointed up at the building. We went inside ... and there was an almighty crash, a huge explosion that shook the hotel," he said.
A Reuters correspondent telephoning from a lower floor of the hotel said: "There was just a huge bang. The walls shook."
The United States has said Iraqi forces operating from civilian areas like hotels would be legitimate targets. "We have said very clearly from the very beginning that Baghdad will be a very dangerous place to be," U.S. military spokesman Captain Frank Thorp told CNN in Qatar.
"This is a war zone."
Arabic-language al-Jazeera television said its separate Baghdad office was hit earlier on Tuesday during a U.S. air raid. A reporter/producer was killed and another wounded.
U.S. Central Command in Qatar said it was investigating the reports concerning the Jazeera and Palestine incidents.
DANGER TO JOURNALISTS
Hundreds of journalists are in Iraq (news - web sites) to cover the U.S.-led war to topple President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), and are working from Baghdad, with U.S. and British forces, or on their own.
Before Tuesday, at least six journalists had died covering the war that began on March 20.
On Monday, a German and a Spanish journalist died along with two U.S. soldiers in a missile strike south of Baghdad.
Sky's Chater said: "That tank shell, if it was indeed an American tank shell, was aimed directly at this hotel ... This wasn't an accident. It seems to be a very accurate shot."
Protsyuk had worked for Reuters since 1993. He leaves a widow, Lidia, and an 8-year-old son, Denis.