Woodruff, Cameraman Injured in Iraq

Co-anchor of ABC World News Tonight Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were seriously wounded after roadside bomb attack in Taji. (Courtesy of ABC News)

BAGHDAD, Jan. 29 -- A co-anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight" and an ABC cameraman suffered serious head wounds Sunday in a roadside bomb attack in Taji, north of Baghdad. They were stabilized in a military hospital and were expected to be flown to Germany for further medical care, the network reported in a statement.

Bob Woodruff, 44, who took over the anchor duties for the weeknight broadcast earlier this month, and cameraman Doug Vogt, were embedded with the U.S. Army's 4th infantry division, but were traveling with an Iraqi unit in an Iraqi vehicle when the explosion occurred, ABC News President David Westin said in a statement. An Iraqi soldier was also wounded in the attack, which took place at 12:25 p.m., the U.S. military reported.

ABC News said on its Web site that that both Woodruff and Vogt were partially exposed because they were standing in the vehicle's hatch. Woodruff sustained shrapnel wounds and Vogt was struck by shrapnel in the head and suffered a broken shoulder, the network said. They were flown to Baghdad's fortified Green Zone and then to a hospital on a U.S. base in Balad, north of the capital, where both underwent lengthy surgeries that stabilized their condition.

"We take this as good news, but the next few days will be critical," Westin said. "The military plans to evacuate them to their medical facilities in Landstuhl, [Germany] probably overnight tonight."

Prior to the attack, the Woodruff and Vogt, who were part of a four-man ABC team on the assignment, switched from an American Humvee to the Iraqi vehicle. The ABC crew was riding in the lead vehicle in a joint U.S.-Iraqi convoy at the time of the explosion, which was followed by small-arms fire, the network reported. The journalists were wearing body armor, helmets and ballistic glasses.

According to a U.S. military official who was briefed on the incident but spoke on the condition that he not be named, the attack came as they rode in a Soviet- made MTLB armored personnel carrier, a more than 12-ton vehicle that can carry about a dozen soldiers. It is described as "lightly armored" on the website of the Federation of American Scientists, which catalogs the specifications of military equipment. The armor in its turret is said to be 7 to 14 millimeters thick.

"It looks like what got them was standing up in the turret," the military official said, adding that doing so, while less safe, was not unusual. "Another guy inside didn't have a scratch on him."

Woodruff, who anchors "World News Tonight" alongside Elizabeth Vargas, is an experienced war correspondent who has reported from the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan and was embedded with a Marine reconnaissance unit during the invasion of Iraq. A Michigan native, he has four children, including five-year-old twins.

Vogt, a Canadian, has 25 years of experience, is a three-time Emmy Award-winner and is now based in Europe, according to a biography posted on a Web site devoted to photojournalists.

The incident was one of several deadly attacks that killed more than a dozen people across Iraq Sunday, including at least three in a series of apparently coordinated bombings targeting churches in the northern city of Kirkuk. Nearly simultaneous explosions at two churches in Baghdad and at the Vatican Embassy in the Iraqi capital caused only minor casualties.

In Kirkuk, insurgents detonated a car bomb near the city's Orthodox Church during a Sunday afternoon Mass, according Gen. Burhan Tayyib of the Iraqi police. The explosion killed one civilian and wounded five. Ten minutes later, a second explosion targeted the Virgin Mary Church for the Chaldians, killing two and wounding seven others.

Tayyib said the attacks were "a message from the terrorists to create sectarian strife."