By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, January 29, 2006; 5:09 PM

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."

In Baghdad, sectarian tension between the country's dominant Muslim sects has mounted in recent days, as near daily raids by the predominately Shiite police force -- who are accused of carrying out assassinations with impunity and of being controlled by Shiite militias -- have enraged residents of largely Sunni neighborhoods.

On Sunday, Sunni politician Adnan Dulaimi said police were conducting a "sectarian cleansing" of the city, and demanded that in the country's next government, which politicians are in the process of forming, ministries controlling Iraq's security forces be put beyond the control of politicians with links to militias.

Appointments to lead the two security-oriented ministries are expected to be highly contentious. The Interior Ministry is currently led by the controversial Bayan Jabr, whose party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, controls a feared Shiite militia called the Badr organization. The defense ministry is led by Sadoun Dulaimi, a Sunni.

Badr head Hadi Amiri told the Reuters news agency Sunday that the Shiite religious parties would "never surrender" the security ministries.

Militia involvement in the police force has also inflamed tension in the southern city of Basra, where hundreds of demonstrators gathered Sunday, outside of a British army headquarters, to protest the recent detention of five policemen. The provincial government has threatened to cease cooperation with the British if the men are not released.

The crowd was led by followers of outspoken cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia retains strong influence over the local police force. They chanted "No, no, for occupation," and "release our people."

Militia members in Basra have been linked to a host of violent crimes, including the slaying of two journalists. Attacks on journalists nationwide, including kidnappings and bombings targeting hotels, have grown more frequent in recent months.

On Sunday the governor of Baghdad said in an interview that investigators had collected names and addresses of those suspected of involvement in the abduction of American reporter Jill Carroll and the killing of her translator more than three weeks ago. Gov. Hussein Taha said the suspects have ties to the Amariya neighborhood of Baghdad and that an undisclosed number of arrests had been made. At least one of the men believed to be involved was carrying a phony police identification card, he said.

Carroll, 28, is a freelance reporter who was working for the Christian Science Monitor at the time of her abduction. Her captors released a videotape threatening to kill her if all female detainees in U.S. custody were not released. Five women were released from American facilities last week, though at least four are still being held.

Correspondents Nelson Hernandez in Baghdad, Thomas E. Ricks in Balad and Special Correspondents Omar Fekeiki, Bassam Sebti and Saleh Saif Aldin in Baghdad and Hassan Shammery in Baquba contributed to this report.