In northern Iraq yesterday, Saddam Hussein loyalists tried to kill a pair of Star Tribune journalists. Though reporter Paul McEnroe and photographer Richard Sennot escaped unharmed, the incident underscored how close journalists are to the violence. The two were covering the action as Kurdish fighters took Kirkuk (keer-KUUK). Most of the Iraqi Army fled from the area. But 50 supporters of Saddam Hussein remained behind and were hiding in a bunker shielded by smoke from a burning oil well. Two of those fighters decide to attack the Star Tribune journalists when they discovered they were Americans. McEnroe says the Iraqi fighters started driving towards him and Sennot in a truck filled with weapons, but were soon surrounded by six local Kurdish armed men, intent on looting the truck: