He was the 10th journalist to die in Iraq since the Iraq war began on March 20, and the second to lose his life on Tuesday after an Al-Jazeera journalist was killed in a separate attack earlier.

In a statement from its London headquarters, Reuters said that another three of its journalists at the hotel had been injured in the incident. They were among 18 Reuters journalists in Baghdad.

"Taras's death, and the injuries sustained by the others, were so unnecessary," said Reuters editor in chief Geert Linnebank.

Linnebank called into question the "judgement of advancing US troops who have known all along that this hotel is the main base for almost all foreign journalists in Baghdad."

Protsyuk was married and had an eight-year-old son.

General Buford Blount, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, confirmed at Baghdad airport that a single US tank round had been fired at the hotel, in response to what he called rocket and small-arms fire from inside.

Jose Couso, a cameraman with the Spanish television channel Telecinco, was also wounded in the leg and jaw in the incident, Telecinco said during its morning current affairs program.

The injured Reuters staffers were identified as television satellite dish coordinator Paul Pasquale, a Briton, who sustained leg injuries; Lebanese-born Gulf bureau chief Samia Nakhoul, who suffered facial wounds and concussion; and photographer Faleh Kheiber, an Iraqi, with head injuries.

"Doctors treating them (in hospital) said their injuries were not life threatening," the company said.

Earlier Tuesday, Tareq Ayub, 34, of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, died after a missile strike on the station's Baghdad offices, which injured a cameraman.

Reuters has its offices on the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, according to AFP correspondents in Baghdad.

The 15th and 17th floors of the hotel were struck in Tuesday's incident, blowing out windows as fierce exchanges raged in the capital on day 20 of the US-led war to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The 14th floor was also damaged.

Dubai's Al-Arabiya television channel said its bureau on the 17th floor also suffered damage.

SPACE.WIRE