WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff and camera operator Doug Vogt were seriously injured in a roadside bombing in Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. television network said.
At the time of the blast, they were traveling with an Iraqi Army unit in an Iraqi vehicle near Taji, near Baghdad, the network said. After the blast, the vehicle came under small arms fire, ABC news reported.
"Bob and Doug are in serious condition and are being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq," the network said in a statement.
Both men have head injuries,'the network reported.
They were injured by an improvised explosive device, or IED, which are often planted by insurgents on roads to attack U.S. vehicles.
Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas were named by ABC on Dec. 5 as co-anchors to replace the late Peter Jennings on the network's "World News Tonight." They started on Jan. 3.
Woodruff, 44, is from Michigan and joined ABC in 1996. He has reported from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, from Italy for the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI and from Yugoslavia during the conflict in Kosovo. He had also covered the Justice Department in Washington.
Vogt, 46, is Canadian and lives in Aix-en-Provence in France. He is an Emmy award-winning cameraman and filmed the aftermath of the Asian tsunami from Sri Lanka.
Iraq remains the most dangerous place for journalists. Some 60 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to the media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. At least 41 of those were Iraqi, the CPJ said in a recent report.
Other media watchdogs say the toll is higher.
An Iraqi television cameraman was killed in clashes between Sunni rebels and U.S. forces on Jan 24 in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi on Tuesday.
A cameraman working for Reuters, Dhia Najim, was shot dead during fighting between U.S. Marines and insurgents on Nov. 1, 2004. The exact circumstances of his killing have never been clarified despite requests to the U.S. military from Reuters.
Many journalists have also been taken hostage; some have been killed by their abductors but most have been released unharmed. American journalist Jill Carroll was kidnapped in Baghdad on Jan. 7 and is still missing.
