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ABC anchor injured in Iraq

Bob Woodruff, ABC World News Tonight co-anchor, and a cameraman were riding in a convoy hit by a roadside bomb.

By wire services
Published January 30, 2006

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb seriously wounded ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff and ABC News cameraman Doug Vogt Sunday as they were riding with Iraqi troops in Taji, north of Baghdad.

Woodruff and Vogt were standing with their heads outside the hatch of a Russian-made Iraqi military personnel carrier, apparently filming, when the explosion rocked the vehicle. They were wearing body armor, but both men received shrapnel wounds to the head, and Woodruff also has broken bones. An Iraqi army officer who was helping them lost four fingers. The vehicle's driver was uninjured.

The journalists were in stable condition after surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq, and were being evacuated to medical facilities in Germany, said ABC News president David Westin.

"We take this as good news, but the next few days will be critical," Westin said.

Woodruff and Vogt, an award-winning cameraman, were embedded with the 4th Infantry Division and traveling in a convoy with U.S. and Iraqi troops near Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad.

Bashar Mahmoud Ayoub, commander of the 9th Division of the Iraqi Army based in Taji, said Woodruff and Vogt had been in a Humvee but asked to move to the Iraqi vehicle, which was leading the convoy. Ayoub said roadside bombs, known in military parlance as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, are common in the area.

"We suffer on this road every time we pass it. It is filled with IEDs. They target my men daily," he said. "There are so many, you cannot imagine it."

ABC said the men were in the Iraqi vehicle - considered less secure than U.S. 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.

Woodruff, who was named co-anchor with Elizabeth Vargas of ABC's nightly news broadcast in December, is the best-known American journalist wounded or killed in Iraq since fighting began there in March 2003. Nearly 9-million Americans watch ABC's World News Tonight nightly.

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 Saddam Hussein's munitions dumps. Many of the explosives are believed to have gotten into the hands of insurgents, she said.

"I admire Bob for going with the Iraqis," said Logan, who was blown 12 feet in the air by an explosion while with the U.S. military in Afghanistan in 2003. "It's important to hear their story and to experience it from their point of view. He did the right thing."

Woodruff had traveled to Iraq as part of ABC News' plans to cover President Bush's State of the Union speech on Tuesday, said ABC News vice president Jeffrey Schneider.

Both men were experienced war correspondents. Woodruff, who grew up in suburban Detroit, had reported from Iraq previously, including a several-monthslong assignment in 2004. He traveled with the First Marine Division, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, during the initial U.S. invasion, Schneider said. He also covered the war in Afghanistan.

Vogt, a Canadian who lives in Aix-en-Provence, France, is a three-time Emmy Award winner who has been with ABC News for 15 years, Schneider said. He has worked previously covering global events for CBC and BBC.

Vogt was recently in another convoy in which someone was killed by an IED but Vogt wasn't injured. Vogt was sitting next to ABC producer David Kaplan when Kaplan was killed in Bosnia in 1992, Schneider said.

On CBS' Face the Nation Sunday, anchor Bob Schieffer abandoned his commentary to wish Woodruff and Vogt well. "It just hit us all like a lightning bolt because we've all been there," he later told the Associated Press.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams said he had been in touch with Woodruff's family and is praying for the families of both men.

"There is no way to cover the story in Iraq without exposure to danger," he said.

Dozens of journalists have been injured, killed or kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Information from the Associated Press and Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.

[Last modified January 30, 2006, 00:33:11]