"We categorically condemn the act of allied forces of targeting journalists working in the battlefield of Iraq," according to a memorandum presented at the UN offices by a group of some 50 journalists.

The memorandum demanded the UN set up an independent tribunal to probe the attack.

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

Wednesday's killings have brought the death toll among journalists and staff covering the three-week-old conflict to at least 12.

"Stop these killings," the Pakistani journalists chanted.

Anti-war protests were also staged in different cities of this overwhelmingly Muslim country.

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SPACE.WIRE