WASHINGTON: ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff and camera operator Doug Vogt were seriously injured in a roadside bombing in Iraq on Sunday, the US television network said.
At the time of the blast, they were traveling with an Iraqi Army unit in an Iraqi vehicle near Taji, near Baghdad, the network said. After the blast, the vehicle came under small arms fire, ABC news reported.
"Bob and Doug are in serious condition and are being treated at a US military hospital in Iraq," the network said in a statement. "Both men have head injuries," the network reported. They were injured by an improvised explosive device, or IED, which are often planted by insurgents on roads to attack US vehicles.
Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas were named by ABC on Dec. 5 as co-anchors to replace the late Peter Jennings on the network's 'World News Tonight.' They started on Jan. 3. Woodruff, 44, is from Michigan and joined ABC in 1996. He has reported from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, from Italy for the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI and from Yugoslavia during the conflict in Kosovo. He had also covered the Justice Department in Washington.
Vogt, 46, is Canadian and lives in Aix-en-Provence in France. He is an Emmy award-winning cameraman and filmed the aftermath of the Asian tsunami from Sri Lanka.
