IRAQ

AFP: US Troops Fire On Press Vehicle

KHALDIYAH, Iraq (AFP) -- US soldiers today fired on a car belonging to the American news agency Associated Press, an Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene said.

The AFP correspondent said AP reporters were trying to film an ambushed convoy in the town west of Baghdad when they were fired on, despite having AP clearly marked on their car.

Neither the two reporters nor the driver, all Iraqis, were hurt when the Americans opened fire in the area where witnesses said US forces suffered heavy casualties in a bomb and rocket-propelled grenade attack.

"The Americans opened fire when I took out my camera to film" a military vehicle on fire, said one of the AP journalists, Karim al-Ubeidi.

"The mention of AP was clearly visible on the car but they opened fire nevertheless," he said.

The Associated Press had earlier reported that US troops were ambushed on the main road of Khaldiyah, hit by a remote-controlled roadside bomb and then coming under heavy gunfire that destroyed at least two trucks.

An AP driver saw a 20-year-old man, still alive after being shot in the chest, placed in a taxi.