Journalist's death: The veteran British television correspondent, Terry Lloyd, was killed in Iraq after going missing under fire on Saturday, his company, Independent Television News, said yesterday. The fate of his two colleagues remained unknown.
"ITN has received sufficient evidence to believe that ITV News correspondent Terry Lloyd was killed in an incident on the southern Iraq front war front yesterday," an ITN statement said.
"We believe his body to be in Basra hospital, which is still under Iraqi control. Two members of his team - Fred Nerac and Hussein Osman - are still missing and ITN so far has no information on their whereabouts or condition."
Lloyd and his television crew went missing on Saturday after coming under fire, possibly from British forces, near Basra, while driving towards the port city in two vehicles.
The ITN statement said it believed US or British forces had opened fire after seeing Iraqi "irregulars" travelling down the road in the same direction.
Lloyd (50), an award-winning correspondent, has reported extensively from Iraq, Cambodia, Bosnia and Kosovo. "Terry was brave, he was determined and he was safety conscious," ITN chief executive Mr Stewart Purvis said.
One crew member who escaped said the firing was coming from the direction of UK forces' positions. In London, the Ministry of Defence said they could have been caught in crossfire.
Cameraman Daniel Demoustier, who was with the three missing journalists, said they were being followed by two Iraqi vehicles when the firing started.
"I had to duck down straight away - windows were exploding inside the car. I looked to my right side and the right door, where my correspondent \ was, was open and he was not there any more," Demoustier told the ITV channel on Saturday.
He said the car fell into a ditch and burst into flames and that the gunfire seemed to have come from "the British side".
The Ministry of Defence said on Saturday the ITN crew had gone through several checkpoints where they had been told to turn back. A spokesman said the journalists were between US and British forces and Iraqi troops when they were hit.
Dozens of journalists are accompanying British and US forces. Others are in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, which the US-led forces have been bombing and intend to capture. - (Reuters)