CBC News | April 8, 2003

BAGHDAD - At least two journalists were killed on Tuesday when a U.S. tank fired on the hotel in Baghdad where they and other journalists have been staying. Another died in a bomb blast elsewhere in the city.

Palestine Hotel

Three other journalists were wounded when a single tank round hit the Palestine Hotel. U.S. soldiers said snipers on the hotel's roof were shooting at them.

Journalists in the building at the time said they heard no shots coming from the hotel.

"We don't target journalists," said U.S. Brig.-Gen. Vincent Brooks. "That's not something we do."

U.S. military officials later said they wouldn't fire on the 18-storey hotel again.

Abu Dhabi television broadcast pictures showing damage next to a balcony on the 15th floor of the hotel.

Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, 35, was killed in the blast.

Jose Couso, 37, a cameraman with Spanish television network Telecinco, died while doctors tried to repair his wounds.

Journalists staying at the hotel fled to the courtyard and Al-Jazeera TV showed people being rushed out of the hotel, one of them soaked red with blood.

The three wounded journalists were Reuters staffers Paul Pasquale of Britain, Samia Nakhoul of Lebanon and Iraqi photographer Faleh Kheiber.

In a separate incident, Al-Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayoub was killed when a bomb from a U.S. plane hit its office on the banks of the Tigris River.

An Arab-speaking spokesman for the U.S. State Department appeared on the network to say the U.S. military did not deliberately target the Al-Jazeera offices.