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South African editors have condemned what was termed deliberate attacks on journalists by United States and British forces during the war in Iraq, the South African Press Association reported.
"The high death and injury toll amongst journalists adds to the increasingly shocking and awful conduct of the war," the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) said on Wednesday.
"We demand that the US-British coalition forces stop their deliberate attacks on journalists reporting on the war."
On Tuesday, a US tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, where many foreign journalists are based. Two cameramen were killed and three other journalists wounded.
A third journalist died when an American bomb landed on the offices of the Al-Jazeera television network.
SANEF rejected US explanations for the attack on the hotel, saying journalists in the area had not heard any hostile fire coming from the building.
"The US military knew who was in the hotel and we do not regard it as a coincidence that it was fired on," SANEF said in a statement.
"The Palestine Hotel is well known as the venue from which 'unimpeded' journalists are reporting and where they reside," SANEF said.
SANEF lent its support to calls for an independent and speedy inquiry into the attacks on journalists and media organizations.
It also urged the attacking coalition forces do everything possible to ensure the safety of all journalists reporting on the war.
(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2003)
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