ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff and camera operator Doug Vogt were seriously injured in a roadside bombing in Iraq today, the US 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 and are being treated in Iraq, the network reported. The men were injured by an improvised explosive device, or IED, which are often planted by insurgents on roads to attack US vehicles.
Mr Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas were named by ABC on December 5 thlast as co-anchors to replace the late Peter Jennings on the network's "World News Tonight." They started on January 3rd.
Some 60 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the US-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 US forces on January 24th in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi.
American journalist Jill Carroll was kidnapped in Baghdad on January 7th and is still missing.