NEW YORK – Cameraman Paul Douglas had spent more than a decade covering the world’s hot spots for CBS News. Freelance soundman James Brolan was part of a CBS team honored for its dispatches on the earthquake in Pakistan. Correspondent Kimberly Dozier had been reporting on the deteriorating situation in Iraq for nearly three years.

The two British men were killed yesterday in Baghdad when a car bomb exploded while they were working on a story about American troops in Iraq on Memorial Day. Douglas, 48, and Brolan, 42, died at the scene, the network said.

Ms. Dozier, 39, was in critical condition at an American military hospital in Baghdad after undergoing two surgeries for injuries from the blast, a CBS News spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said. By early today, doctors had removed shrapnel from Ms. Dozier’s head but said she had more serious injuries to her lower body, CBS News reported.

“Kimberly, Paul and James were veterans of war coverage who proved their bravery and dedication every single day,” the president of CBS News, Sean McManus, said in a statement. “They always volunteered for dangerous assignments and were invaluable in our attempt to report the news to the American public.”

CBS News reported on its Web site that the three journalists were embedded with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division and had gotten out of their armored vehicle after a “curious incident.” A nearby car packed with explosives then detonated, the network said.

All three journalists were believed to have been wearing protective gear at the time, CBS said.

A series of blasts in Iraq killed at least 40 people yesterday and wounded dozens in the worst wave of violence to hit Baghdad in days.

Douglas, a British national based in London, had worked for CBS News since the early 1990s in places including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Rwanda, and Bosnia. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, and three grandchildren

Brolan, who also was based in London, had worked with CBS News during the last year in Baghdad and Afghanistan as a freelancer. The British citizen leaves behind a wife and two children.

“Our deepest sympathy goes out to the families of Paul and James, and we are hoping and praying for a complete recovery by Kimberly,” Mr. McManus said.

In addition to her time in Iraq, Ms. Dozier, who is American, had worked as the chief correspondent for WCBS-TV New York’s Middle East bureau in Jerusalem, and previously as London bureau chief and chief European correspondent for CBS Radio News.

Dozens of journalists have been injured, killed, or kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 American-led invasion that toppled the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.

Before yesterday’s attack, the Committee to Protect Journalists had put the number of journalists killed in Iraq at 69. Of those, nearly three-quarters were Iraqis, the New York-based group said.