NBC anchor Brian Williams 'embellished his reporting exploits 11 times'
Inquiry into Brian Williams began following his apology in February about an incident in Iraq
An internal investigation into news anchor Brian Williams found he publicly embellished his reporting exploits 11 times, NBC News sources revealed.
The probe came after Williams apologised in early February for saying on NBC Nightly News that a military helicopter he was on was damaged by rocket fire at the start of the Iraq war.
His account was challenged by soldiers on the flight, leading to a furore that prompted NBC to suspend Williams for six months without pay and investigate other claims he made.
The Iraq claim was one of the 11 suspect statements that a team of NBC News journalists identified during the inquiry, the insider said.
The investigators, led by senior executive producer Richard Esposito, also raised doubts about Williams' experiences covering Israel's military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006.
In an interview with a student-run television station at Connecticut's Fairfield University in 2007, Williams said he saw rockets passing "just beneath" an Israel helicopter he was on. But the anchor gave a less harrowing account of the same trip in an NBC News blog a year earlier.
NBC executives - including those likely to determine Williams' fate at the network - were briefed about the investigation this week.