Three Iraqis working for Reuters who were detained by American soldiers west of Baghdad last week, were freed today, the US military said.
The Reuters team, led by Baghdad-based cameraman Mr Salem Uraiby, was detained near where a US Kiowa helicopter was shot down. One pilot was killed and the other was wounded.
Reuters driver Mr Alaa Noury, who was working with the three, said they had been fired on by US troops earlier as they filmed close to the crash site. They drove away at speed and were unhurt.
Mr Noury, who said a second car driven by another Iraqi journalist was fired on in the same incident, returned to Baghdad with the footage filmed at the scene.
The rest of the Reuters team continued working nearby, before they were detained.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the senior US military spokesman in Iraq, said on Friday guerrillas posing as journalists had fired on American paratroopers guarding the crash site and four were later detained.
An investigation was under way to ascertain exactly what happened in the incident.