"Clearly the war, and all its confusion, has come to the heart of Baghdad,'' said Reuters Editor in Chief Geert Linnebank. "But the incident (of a U.S. tank killing journalists at the Palestinian Hotel) nonetheless raises questions about the judgment of the advancing U.S. troops who have known all along that this hotel is the main base for almost all foreign journalists in Baghdad.''

In a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it believed the attacks violated the Geneva Conventions concerning likely harm to civilians. A.P.