Two U.S. reporters, Daniel Alder of United Press International and Thomas Long of the Miami Herald, were wounded Friday by mortar shrapnel, a witness and officials said.

Alder received a minor leg wound. Long, 34, was seriously injured by a piece of shrapnel that entered his chest, said reporter Beth Stickney, who was with the two when they were wounded.Stickney, a reporter for Pacifica Radio, said Long was in surgery at the Polyclinica Hospital where doctors were trying to remove the shrapnel from his abdomen. Long also works as a radio correspondent for CBS News.

"We heard a sound like a missle," Stickney said. "We didn't have time to run. We hit the ground."

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She said the mortar round appeared to have been fired by government troops aiming at rebels on a nearby hill. "It was not aimed at us," she said.

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