"They contacted their family this evening and told them they hadn't been able to telephone them," a spokesman for the Al-Arabiya network told AFP.

Syrian journalist Wael Awad, Lebanese cameraman Talal al-Masri and Lebanese engineer Ali Safa were currently with British forces in southern Iraq.

The crew will return to Kuwait on Saturday, the spokesman said, adding that the three men were in good health but that they had not revealed where they had been since March 22, the third day of the US-led war on Iraq.

The Al-Arabiya team was "embedded" with the US 101st Airborne Division which moved into southern Iraq from Kuwait. They were between Zubayr and Nasiriyah when the channel last heard from them, according to the spokesman.

At least two journalists have been killed since the United States and Britain launched the war on Iraq on March 20.

British TV news reporter Terry Lloyd is believed to have been killed in southern Iraq, apparently after coming under fire from coalition forces, his employer ITN television said Sunday. Two of his colleagues are still missing.

Australian freelance cameraman Paul Moran was killed in a suicide car bombing in northern Iraq.

WAR.WIRE