- A hotel in Basra being used as a base by al-Jazeera's
team of correspondents in the city was shelled this morning, the Arabic
TV news channel has claimed.
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- The Basra Sheraton, whose only guests are al-Jazeera
journalists, received four direct hits this morning during a heavy artillery
bombardment, according to the Qatar-based broadcaster.
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- No casualties were reported in the incident, but al-Jazeera
said it would be writing to the Pentagon again to provide full details
of the location of all its journalists and bureaux in Iraq.
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- "The official HQ of al-Jazeera's team covering the
war on Iraq in Basra was subjected to heavy shelling in the early morning
of Wednesday. Al-Jazeera is the only TV team reporting from Basra,"
said a spokesman for the broadcaster.
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- "It is not clear whether the shelling was directed
solely at the Sheraton hotel. An al-Jazeera reporter in Basra, however,
described the situation as 'very dangerous'," he added.
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- "Al-Jazeera had officially advised the Pentagon
of all relevant details pertaining to its reporters covering the war on
Iraq, as stipulated by relevant international practice and conventions
governing reporting wars. The details included official HQs of all its
reporters in Basra, Mosul and Baghdad."
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- The shelling of the Basra Sheraton mirrors a similar
incident during the Afghan war, when al-Jazeera accused the US military
of deliberately targeting its Kabul office, despite having told the Americans
where its reporters were based.
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- In November 2001 al-Jazeera's base in the Afghan capital
was destroyed by a US bomb that also damaged the nearby BBC office.
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- At the time the Pentagon denied it had deliberately targeted
al-Jazeera, but said it could not explain why the Kabul office was hit.
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