Adam Pieczynski, director of the private Polish television station TVN 24, told AFP that Marcin Firlej and a colleague from Polish public radio, Jacek Kaczmarek, had been arrested in the area of al-Hillah, by "five, perhaps six armed Iraqis."

Polish public radio confirmed the information to AFP. The arrest had been publicised thanks to two other TVN 24 journalists who had fled the scene and alerted US troops.

One of the journalists, Maciej Woroch, said the patrol included "two armed men in uniform and three civilians."

"The armed men obliged our colleagues to get out of their car. We did a U-turn with ours and they fired on us," he said, contacted by telephone live on TVN24.

Eight journalists have died since the beginning of the US-led war in Iraq began on March 20, while two others have disappeared.

The station said that the Polish foreign affairs ministry had been informed and was in contact with US and Kuwaiti authorities.

SPACE.WIRE