No; they were doing a story on the progress of the Iraqi military. You obviously have to BE WITH THEM to tell the story, unless of course you want to do a half-assed job.
They were still under the banner of the U.S. military.
It is unfortunate this happened. OTOH, all the embedded reporters knew the risk ahead of time. The embedded reporter idea has its good points, but also its drawbacks, as we see here today.