According to the BBC, the French paper Liberation has said it hasn't heard from correspondent Florence Aubenas or her assistant in 24 hours.

It didn't know whether they had been kidnapped.

Aubenas, 43, has reported from conflict zones before, including Kosovo, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Algeria.

But this targeting of Westerners for kidnapping is a unique development in the history of conflict reportage.

Here is what the International Federation of Journalists said about the Iraq situation back on Aug. 23:

“The numbers of foreign journalists missing is rising and we fear that journalists are now becoming the number one target of armed militants,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “This is a troubling development. Killing and threatening to murder unarmed civilians are acts of inhumanity that provide shocking evidence of the continuing security crisis in Iraq.”

For a first-hand story, read this one about Esprit D'Corps publisher Scott Taylor's kidnapping experience.

Here's a list of journalist deaths in Iraq, composed by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). It also has a Conflict in Iraq page that also lists kidnappings and lots of other information.

CPJ also has a handbook online called On Assignment: Covering Conflicts Safely.

It hasn't been updated in a while, but Canadian freelance journalist Tom Popyk is working in Iraq and has a blog.

For advice on staying safe, check out the News Safety Institute's How to Handle Iraq (it's a .doc file). There's also some tips available from Chiron Resources.

Last April, the BBC did a story on the rising cost of insurance for those working in Iraq.