Two journalists working for the Associated Press (AP) were seriously wounded on Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Eastern Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to news reports. Photographer Emilio Morenatti and videographer Andi Jatmiko were travelling with U.S. forces when their vehicle was hit by the bomb.

Both journalists were taken to a military hospital in Kandahar. Jatmiko suffered leg injuries and two broken ribs. Morenatti, badly wounded in the leg, had to have a foot amputated.

The Associated Press reported that Morenatti, 40, a Spaniard, was an award-winning photographer based in Islamabad, Pakistan, who had worked for AP in Afghanistan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. He was named newspaper photographer of the year in 2009 in the photojournalism contest Pictures of the Year International. Jatmiko, 44, an Indonesian national, had reported for AP from throughout Asia for more than 10 years.

The roadside bomb that injured the journalists was an ‘improvised explosive device’ (IED), a type of bomb widely used in Iraq, and rapidly becoming a primary threat for armed forces and field reporters in Afghanistan as well.

A Western military source in Kabul told IPI that there were more than 100 reporters, from over 40 media organizations, currently embedded with U.S. Army units in Afghanistan. “The number is likely to be much higher, said International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Press Officer Lt. Commander Sam Truelove. “We have reporters who come through Kabul who we keep track of. Individual countries have individual journalists embedded with them.”

Reporters in hostile situations face many of the same threats faced by members of the armed forces. According to IPI’s Death Watch, 18 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan since 1998 and more than 130 journalists have been killed in Iraq since 2003.

“Afghanistan and Iraq continue to be two of the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters,” said IPI Deputy Director Michael Kudlak.

“We applaud the courage of the media workers who continue to report from these frontline areas, and hope for a quick recovery for the two journalists who were injured on Wednesday. Our thoughts are with their families.”