| Subject: AL- JAZEERAH correspondent reporter in Baghdad killed |
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Date Posted: 16:11:44 04/08/03 Tue
AL- JAZEERAH correspondent reporter in Baghdad killed by US attack
8 April 2003
AMMAN (JT) — Jordan Times' staff reporter Tareq Ayyoub, also a correspondent for Al Jazeera satellite television station, was killed by a US missile strike on the station's Baghdad offices early Tuesday morning.
Ayyoub, who worked with The Jordan Times since 1994, had been seriously injured in the bombing. The station aired footage of him being taken away for treatment in a car belonging to rival network Abu Dhabi television. He later died of his wounds.
Another member of Jazeera's Baghdad crew, Zuhair Al Iraqi, was wounded in the neck by shrapnel.
Ayyoub, 35, was married with one child, Fatima, and had only been in Baghdad for less than a week.
Al Jazeera accused the US military of deliberately targeting its offices and recalled that the station's Kabul bureau had been hit in November 2001 during the US-led assault on Afghanistan.
"We regret to inform you that our correspondent Tareq Ayyoub was killed this morning during the US missile strike on our Baghdad office," Jazeera said in a statement read out during its news bulletin.
Jazeera's Baghdad correspondent Majed Abdel Hadi called the US missile strike and Ayyoub's death a crime.
"I will not be objective about this because we have been dragged into this conflict," he said, visibly upset. "We were targeted because the Americans don't want the world to see the crimes they are committing against the Iraqi people."
Jazeera and fellow Arab network Abu Dhabi TV are the only two international channels with their own offices in Baghdad.
The two stations were filming the arrival of two US tanks on a major bridge in central Baghdad close to their offices overlooking the Tigris river.
Several incoming blasts boomed out, engulfing the area in smoke, and Abu Dhabi TV said it had lost contact with its correspondent.
A US air force A10 "tank killer" plane provided close air support for the first time hitting the nearby Planning Ministry and other "targets" in the administrative district around the sprawling city centre palace compound, an AFP correspondent reported.
Al Jazeera said the office operated in a civilian area which had no military targets.
All other media organisations used to operate from a press centre at the Information Ministry, but they moved to the Palestine Hotel after the ministry was bombed.
The hotel was also bombed later Tuesday and several journalists were hurt in the fresh US attack. There were unconfirmed reports that a journalist was killed in the attack.
According to AFP, nine journalists were killed since the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq started on March 20.
Abu Dhabi TV had earlier showed footage of a huge fire blazing from the Jazeera office. Jazeera correspondent Tayseer Alouni, who made his name covering the US-led war on Afghanistan, was seen carrying the wounded Ayyoub into a car with several employees of Abu Dhabi TV.
"One missile hit the pavement in front of us, ripping out windows and doors and then one hit the generator," said Maher Abdullah, another Jazeera correspondent. "The office is now on fire."
Jazeera's graphic images of the US-led war on Iraq have mesmerised millions of Arab viewers, who regard its coverage as more comprehensive and balanced than that of Western media.
http://jordantimes.com/Tue/homenews/homenews11.htm
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