LONDON - Journalists walked off the job and politicians demanded answers on Wednesday in a new broadside against the United States over the deaths of three journalists in Baghdad.

From Egypt to Mexico City, media vented their fury after U.S. fire killed journalists from Reuters news agency, Spanish broadcaster Telecinco and Arab television channel al-Jazeera in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Spanish journalists stand behind their cameras as they stage a protest April 9, 2003, in front of Madrid's U.S. embassy against the killing of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso, 37, from Spain's Telecinco television network. A U.S. tank fired on a Baghdad hotel packed with foreign journalists, killing two cameramen, and prompting an outcry from media watchdog groups demanding an investigation. Cameramen from Reuters and Spanish television died and three other Reuters staff were wounded in the shelling on Tuesday, soon after a journalist from al-Jazeera was killed in what the Arab television channel called a U.S. air strike on its office. Banner reads 'Couso, they hit us all.' REUTERS/Andrea Comas

In Spain, journalists piled cameras, tape recorders and notepads at the front of a room where Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was meeting his party. Reporters in Madrid also walked out of a news conference with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

At a separate protest outside the U.S. embassy in the Spanish capital, shouts of "murderers" rang out.

Earlier in Paris, Straw said he was still seeking an explanation for the deaths in Baghdad.

"I haven't had a detailed report, but I'm going to ask for one," Straw told reporters at a joint news conference with France's foreign minister before flying to Madrid.

U.S. forces said they were responding to sniper fire when a U.S. tank fired at a Baghdad hotel packed with journalists, killing Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Telecinco's Jose Couso. But journalists at the scene said they heard no fire.

In a separate incident, al-Jazeera said reporter-producer Tarek Ayoub was killed in a U.S. air raid on Baghdad. Al-Jazeera accused the United Sates of deliberately bombing its offices to silence a powerful voice in the Arab world.

Journalist groups called on the Pentagon for an immediate investigation into Tuesday's events, demanding proof the attacks were not deliberately aimed at journalists.

NEWSPAPER FURY

In the Arab world, media on Wednesday accused the United States of intentionally "killing witnesses." Egyptian newspapers said the U.S. fire was aimed at muzzling independent coverage, with opposition daily al-Ahrar calling the attack "a massacre."

In Mexico, the respected El Universal daily said on its front page: "The U.S. is now murdering journalists."

The Iraq war has proved more deadly for the media than both the first Gulf War and the Afghan conflict, with 10 people killed while covering this conflict so far.

Many other journalists have been held by Iraqi authorities. As images of the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government emerged from Baghdad on Wednesday, seven Italian journalists were allowed to leave the hotel where they had been held for 13 days.

News organizations were considering pulling reporters out of Iraq after the three deaths in Baghdad.

Al-Jazeera, which has been criticized by the United States for showing images of slain Western soldiers, said it was trying to pull its reporters out of Iraq after Ayoub's death.

More than 1,000 journalists are in Iraq covering the war.

The demands of 24-hour-a-day television coverage, hundreds more journalists and multiple battle fronts have put journalists under added pressure in this conflict.

JOURNALISTS SEEK GUARANTEES

Workers at Spanish state broadcaster RTVE issued a statement on Wednesday calling for an explanation for the U.S. tank attack and to "demand from the U.S. administration guarantees and an explicit commitment not to attack media locations again."

The Pentagon said on Tuesday it regretted the deaths but noted it had repeatedly warned journalists of the dangers.

A Spanish Defense Ministry spokesman said the United States had said it warned journalists that the Baghdad hotel attacked "could become a military target."

Reuters said on Wednesday it was in regular contact with U.S. military authorities about the incident. (Additional reporting by Dan Trotta in Madrid, Catherine Bremer in Paris, Alistair Bell in Mexico City and Sami Aboudi in Cairo)

Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd

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