ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured when the Iraqi Army vehicle they were traveling in was attacked with an explosive device.
Both men suffered head injuries, and Woodruff also has broken bones. They were in stable condition on Sunday following surgery at a US military hospital in Iraq. They were being evacuated to medical facilities in Germany, ABC News president David Westin said on Sunday night.
"We take this as good news, but the next few days will be critical," Westin said.
PHOTO: AP
Woodruff and Doug Vogt, an award-winning cameraman, were embedded with the 4th Infantry Division and traveling in a convoy on Sunday with US and Iraqi troops near Taji, about 19km north of Baghdad.
They were wearing body armor and helmets but were standing up in the hatch of the mechanized vehicle when the device exploded, exposing them to shrapnel.
An Iraqi solder was also hurt in the explosion.
ABC said the men were in the Iraqi vehicle -- considered less secure than US military equipment -- to get the perspective of the Iraqi military. They were aware the Iraqi forces are the frequent targets of insurgent attacks, the network said.
ABC reported senior producer Kate Felsen had been working with Woodruff for the past two weeks.
"He wanted to get out and report the story and not be locked in and taking information from someone else who was experiencing it," Felsen said.
She said she spoke with Woodruff and Vogt after the attack.
"Doug was conscious, and I was able to reassure him we were getting them care. I spoke to Bob also and walked with them to the helicopter," Felsen said.
Lara Logan, a CBS News correspondent who has covered Iraq, said the Taji area is considered particularly dangerous because it was the site of one of former president Saddam Hussein's munitions dumps. Many of the explosives are believed to have gotten into the hands of insurgents, she said.
Vogt, 46, is a three-time Emmy award winning cameraman from Canada who has spent the last 20 years based in Europe covering global events for CBC, BBC and now exclusively for ABC News. He lives in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Meanwhile, car bombs exploded in quick succession near four Christian churches and the office of the Vatican envoy in Baghdad on Sunday, killing three people and raising new concerns about sectarian tensions.
At least 17 other people were killed in other violence around the country.
No group claimed responsibility for the bombings , which occurred within a half hour near two churches in Baghdad and two in Kirkuk. The fifth bomb exploded about 50m from the Vatican mission in the capital.
Suspicion fell on Islamic extremists such as al-Qaeda in Iraq that have been responsible for massive car bombings and suicide attacks against Iraqi Shiite civilians.
The attacks on Christian sites came at a time of rising sectarian tensions that threaten to complicate efforts to form a broad-based government following the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
Three people died in the bombing at the Church of the Virgin in Kirkuk, police said. At least nine people were injured in the bombings, which caused little damage to the Christian buildings.
The bombings are expected to raise fears among the country's small Christian minority -- about 3 percent of Iraq's 27 million people.
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