'Three killed' in Iraq bus blast

Journalists want a review of a US army wartime attack on a hotel

At least three people have died after an anti-tank mine exploded under a passenger bus in central Iraq.

The US military said the bus drove over the device near Tikrit, hometown of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The deaths follow the killing of more than a dozen people in violence in Iraq in the past few days.

Meanwhile, media campaigners have urged the US Government to reopen an inquiry into the deaths of two journalists in a Baghdad hotel hit by US tank fire.

A US army spokesman said the bus, which was carrying students from Tikrit university, hit the mine at about 1830 (1530 GMT), just west of Tikrit, about 120 miles (193 kilometres) north of Baghdad.

Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell condemned what he called a "cowardly attack" on innocent people.

The vehicle was wrecked by the force of the blast.

The deaths are the latest in Iraq in recent days:

• The US military said it shot dead seven suspected Iraqi rebels in central Iraq on Wednesday

• Also on Wednesday, three Iraqis died in a suicide car bombing in Baquba

• Hours later, two foreign civilians were killed by suspected insurgents near Tikrit

• On Tuesday, eight Iraqi insurgents were shot dead by US troops in Samarra

Government 'lying'

The French-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the shelling of the Palestine Hotel last April was an act of "criminal negligence" by military authorities.

In its report, RSF said the deaths of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso, and Ukrainian Taras Protsyuk, who worked for Reuters, needed to be investigated again.

RSF said senior military commanders did not inform the tank's crew there were journalists in the hotel and that it should not have been targeted.

"The shooting at this building was... an act of criminal negligence" on the part of US military authorities, the report said, exonerating the soldiers in the tank.

An official investigation concluded that the hotel was legitimately targeted in an act of self-defence, but RSF said the government's version of events was "a lie".