Australian cameraman killed in Iraq bomb

10.00am

SYDNEY - A freelance cameraman working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was killed in a suicide car bombing in northern Iraq that Kurdish officials blamed on a militant Islamist group.

Cameraman Paul Moran, 39, from Adelaide in South Australia, and one other person were killed in the attack outside the village of Khurmal, which Kurdish security officials said left at least eight others injured.

ABC correspondent Eric Campbell, who suffered minor shrapnel wounds in the blast, said he and Moran had just finished filming at a base thought to belong to the Ansar al-Islam group when the explosion occurred.

"We were just packing up the car and about to go, Paul was getting one last shot of some peshmergas (militiamen) who were running toward the base. He walked about 15 meters in front of me to get this shot and a taxi just screamed up beside him and exploded," a visibly distraught Campbell told ABC television from Iraq.

"We were thrown back, and Paul was dead."

The journalists were told the base had been overrun by Kurds after coming come under attack from US jets.

Campbell said the pair had spotted some "remnants of Ansar" about a kilometre away while filming and had heard some machine gun fire, but were told the shots came from Kurds firing in victory.

Security officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said they believed the Ansar al-Islam group, which Washington has linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, was responsible for the blast.

PUK officials said on Friday that US forces had bombed Ansar positions in the area, and that at least 100 people were killed in the raids.

Moran had worked extensively in Iraq and the Middle East from his base in Bahrain before moving to Paris last year. He is survived by his wife and a baby daughter.

"He was a tremendous guy to work with, an extraordinary cameraman," said Campbell.

"After we'd finished filming up at the base, we just looked at each other and thought great story...and this just happened."

The ABC correspondent said he now planned to leave Iraq as soon as possible and return to his family in Australia.

Meanwhile fears were growing last night for the safety of a veteran ITN television journalist and two of his news crew, missing after coming under fire in Iraq.

Terry Lloyd, an award-winning news reporter, and his colleagues, cameraman Fred Nerac and Hussein Othman, a local translator, were travelling to Basra in two vehicles early yesterday morning when they were shot at.

The incident happened at Iman Anas, near Iraq's second city. Another cameraman, Daniel Demoustier, was injured but was able to get to safety. He did not see what happened to his colleagues, and coalition and Iraqi military sources were unable to confirm their whereabouts.

In an interview with ITV news, Demoustier described the moment he lost sight of his colleagues. With a black eye and cuts to his face, he said he had been in the first vehicle with Lloyd.

"We passed on the left-hand side a big British artillery position with tanks, and on the right-hand side were some Americans," he said.

"We drove a bit further along the road and there was a bridge, and almost when we got to it we saw some Iraqi soldiers coming in our direction.

"They were still carrying weapons so I thought it was better to turn back straight away, so that's what we did." Demoustier said he saw two Iraqi vehicles following as they drove away. The Iraqis were making "thumbs up" signs at the crew, which he thought meant they wanted to surrender using them as cover.

"But at that same moment heavy gunfire started towards my car, from the right-hand side," he said. "I looked to my right and the door was open and my correspondent [Lloyd] was not there any more." The car fell into a ditch where it caught fire but Demoustier was able to jump out.

He said the crew's other car was unharmed, but he could hear shouting and could see injured people on the road.

The cameraman had to retreat back to the ditch and was later able to escape with journalists from The Mail on Sunday, who arrived at the scene.

ITN said it was making every effort to establish what had happened to the three men.

- REUTERS, INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq