BOB WOODRUFF AND CREWMAN INJURED IN IRAQ

By Michelle Malkin  •  January 29, 2006 11:14 AM

ABC News reports:

“World News Tonight” anchor, Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were injured and are in serious condition after their convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device in Taji, Iraq, today.

Woodruff and Vogt are undergoing surgery at the U.S. military hospital in Balad. Both men suffered head injuries. Woodruff sustained shrapnel wounds and Vogt was hit by shrapnel in the head and suffered a broken shoulder.

Woodruff, Vogt and their four-man team were traveling in a convoy with Iraqi security forces. They had been embedded with the 4th Infantry Division and were in a mechanized vehicle when the explosive went off. The exposion was followed by small arms fire.

“This is very common over there now,” said White House correspondent Martha Raddatz, who also covered the Pentagon for years and has had entensive experience in Iraq, on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” this morning. “These attacks are planned, and this [the small arms attack] is a secondary attack. Sometimes when the medical personnel come in, they have small arms fire following up on that.”

They had been traveling in a U.S. armored humvee, but then transferred into the Iraqi vehicle — which was believed to be a much softer target for attacks.

“It was a mechanized vehicle,” Raddatz said. “At least in wasn’t one of the pickup trucks they usually drive around in. They were in the lead vehicle, and they were up in the hatch, so they were exposed.”

Both, Raddatz said, both Woodruff and Vogt were protected. They were wearing body armor, helmets and ballistic glasses. Woodruff and Vogt were medevaced to the Green Zone to receive treatment. They were then flown by helicopter to Balad which is about a 20-minute ride from Baghdad, said Raddatz.

Statement from ABC president David Westin here.

Transcript of Raddatz’s report on ABC News’s This Week from this morning here.

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Posted in: Iraq

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