ITN said three members of one of its television crews were still missing tonight after coming under fire in southern Iraq - possibly from British artillery.
The crew, which unlike most journalists covering the war was unattached to any US or British unit, had come under fire at Iman Anas, near Basra, while driving towards the port city in two vehicles.
One crew member who escaped said the firing was coming from the direction of British forces' positions, and in London the Ministry of Defence said they could have been caught in crossfire.
ITN Chairman Mark Wood told Reuters: "One of the crew, Daniel Demoustier, was injured but was able to get to safety. He was not able to see what happened to his colleagues and at present, they are still missing."
Cameraman Demoustier, who was with the three missing journalists - correspondent Terry Lloyd and colleagues Fred Nerac and Hussein Othman from the ITV News unit of ITN - said they were being followed by two Iraqi vehicles when the firing started.
The Ministry of Defence said the ITN crew had gone through several checkpoints where they had been told to turn back.
A spokesman said the journalists were between US and British forces and Iraqi troops when they were hit.
Mr Wood said he was unable to verify an agency report that the three had been found and taken to a hospital at Safwan, near the border with Kuwait.
In northern Iraq a car bomb exploded close to the border with Iran, killing an Australian TV cameraman and one other person. Kurdish officials blamed the attack on Ansar al-Islam, an Islamist group the United States accuses of having links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
ITV's award-winning correspondent Lloyd has reported extensively from Iraq, Cambodia, Bosnia and Kosovo.