In an open letter to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the CPJ called for an "immediate and thorough investigation into these incidents" and for the findings to be made public.

Two cameramen, Taras Protsyuk, 35, from the Reuters news agency and Jose Couso, 37, of Spanish television station Telecinco, were killed Tuesday after a US tank fired on Baghdad's Palestine hotel, where most foreign journalists are based.

Tareq Ayub, a 34-year-old correspondent for Arabic television network Al-Jazeera, was also killed when a US missile crashed into the station's offices in Baghdad.

While recognising that all three journalists were operating in an area where combat was occurring, CPJ acting director Joel Simon said the missile strike on the Al-Jazeera facility in particular raised questions about whether the building was deliberately targeted.

"Journalists are civilians and protected under international humanitarian law and cannot be deliberately targeted," Simon said in the letter.

The US war command blamed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime for putting civilians at risk and said the press had been warned of the dangers in Baghdad.

SPACE.WIRE