New York Times photographer injured in Afghanistan

A photographer for The New York Times was seriously injured by a mine today in southern Afghanistan where international forces are pushing into Taliban strongholds to try to turn the tide of the war.

Joao Silva, 44, received leg injuries when he stepped on the mine while accompanying American soldiers on patrol in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province. Silva was evacuated to Kandahar Air Field where he was receiving treatment, the newspaper said in a statement.

No US troops were wounded in the morning explosion.

A group of minesweepers and bomb-sniffing dogs had just moved over the area and were several steps ahead of Silva when the bomb went off. Homemade bombs and mines cause the majority of deaths and injuries among US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Bombs made with small amounts of metal are difficult to detect.

Silva and a New York Times reporter were embedded with a unit of the 101st Airborne Division.

Silva, who has received several awards for his work, has photographed wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, southern Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East. He is the author, with Greg Marinovich, of "The Bang-Bang Club," a chronicle of a group of four photographers covering the violence in South Africa in the 1990s. The other two were Kevin Carter and Ken Oosterbroek.

"Joao is the state-of-the-art war photographer, fearless but careful, with an amazing eye," said Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times. "We're all waiting anxiously and praying for his quick recovery."

In August 2009, CBS Radio News correspondent Cami McCormick was seriously injured when the Army vehicle in which she was riding struck a bomb south of Kabul. That same month, two journalists for The Associated Press — photographer Emilio Morenatti and videographer Andi Jatmiko — were wounded along with two US soldiers by a bomb — also in Kandahar province.