ITN's Terry Lloyd missing, presumed dead, as Pentagon calls for media restraint

ITN confirmed last night that its correspondent, Terry Lloyd, was missing presumed dead after apparently coming under Allied fire when heading towards the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Saturday. If his death is confirmed, he would be the first correspondent in the field to be killed in ITN's 48-year history.

Stewart Purvis, chief executive of ITN, described Mr Lloyd, 50, as "brave, determined and safety conscious". He added: "Terry was one of ITN's most experienced war correspondents. He knew Iraq well. He was the first reporter to alert the world to Saddam Hussein's attack on the town of Halabja in 1988 in which the Kurdish population was wiped out by a chemical attack."

His body is believed to be in Basra hospital, which is under Iraqi control. Mr Lloyd is survived by his wife Lynn, his daughter Chelsey, 21, and son Oliver, 11. In a statement, the family said: "He died doing a job he loved and we are very proud of him." Two of Mr Lloyd's colleagues, Fred Nerac, a cameraman, and Hussein Othman, a translator, are missing, feared dead. They were fired upon by Allied forces, according to their colleague Daniel Demoustier, a cameraman who escaped with minor injuries. Mr Demoustier said the television team had been attacked after they were approached by a group of Iraqi soldiers who were attempting to surrender.

ITN said: "Coalition forces had seen a number of Iraqi 'irregulars' operating in the area. When they saw four vehicles going down a road in the same direction and saw that one of them contained armed Iraqi soldiers, they took this group of vehicles to be a group of irregulars. We assume that is why they opened fire."

The Pentagon urged journalists covering the war in Iraq to "exercise restraint" yesterday after the attack on the ITN crew brought the number of reporters killed, injured or missing presumed dead to at least six . Confusion in the war zone created by the rapid Allied advance on multiple fronts has combined with intense competition among media organisations to increase the already high risks involved in covering the conflict. More than 600 journalists are working independently, unaligned to military units, and are repeatedly finding themselves in the line of fire.

An Australian cameraman ­ Paul Moran, 39, who was working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) ­ was killed in a suspected suicide bombing on Saturday when a car exploded at a checkpoint in north-eastern Iraq. The blast was unofficially linked to the Ansar al-Islam group. Mr Moran's colleague, an ABC correspondent, Eric Campbell, was injured in the incident. Three other Western journalists narrowly escaped being killed when they came under fire on Saturday in southern Iraq.

Victoria Clarke, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, said: "It's very dangerous out there, especially when people are wandering freely between coalition and Iraqi forces. We say again to news organisations that we urge you to exercise restraint with journalists."

As well as the reporters who are "embedded" into military units, hundreds of others have crossed into the war zone from Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey.

Joel Campagna, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said: "It's not possible to get a complete picture relying solely on embeds. The non-embedded reporters are able to interact with Iraqi civilians and people on the other side."