A foreign journalist seriously wounded after a U.S. tank fired at a hotel filled with journalists

AS-SALIYAH, Qatar, April 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A U.S. military spokeswoman denied Tuesday, April 8, that U.S. forces had targeted the Al-Jazeera television station in Baghdad, which the network said was hit by U.S. missiles killing a correspondent.

"We did not target Al-Jazeera," Major Rumi Nielson-Green said at the US base directing the Iraq invasion. "We only target legitimate military targets."

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera reported earlier that Baghdad correspondent Tareq Ayub died of his injuries following a U.S. missile strikes on the station's Baghdad offices.

A cameraman, Zuheir al-Iraqi, was hit in the neck by shrapnel in the blast, which the network charged was a deliberate strike.

Al-Jazeera's presenter accused the U.S. military of "deliberately targeting" its offices and recalled that the station's Kabul bureau had been hit in November 2001 during the U.S.-led assault on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

“Our office’s location has been clearly known to the Americans all along. There are very clear signs in yellow reading “Press” covering the building from all sides and on the roof. The pilot saw us, fired one missile, circled and returned to turn a second missile. The Americans should find another plausible explanation for targeting us,” one al-Jazeera correspondent, a survivor of the attack charged.

Baghdad Press Hotel Hit

In another blow to the press, five people, including a Spanish cameraman and three staff of British news agency Reuters, were wounded Tuesday when a Baghdad hotel was hit during fighting across the capital, AFP correspondents said.

Al-Jazeera correspondent, Tayseer Allouni, reported that one of the Reuters wounded reporters has died, adding that the Spanish cameraman’s condition was critical.

Jose Couso, of Spanish private network Telecinco, was wounded in the leg and jaw, the television announced during a morning current affairs program.

The Reuters injured included a journalist, a photographer and a cameraman. The identity of the fifth casualty was not immediately clear.

Reuters has its offices on the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel which houses most of the foreign media covering the Iraq invasion.

The hotel’s area was called “secure area”, as its location and guests indicated both sides of the military battles knew that the area was off limits to strikes.

The 15th and 17th floors of the hotel were struck, blowing out windows as fierce exchanges raged on the 20th day of the U.S.-led invasion. The 14th floor was also damaged.

A hole had been knocked into the hotel facade laying bare the metal structure of a column running past a balcony.

Dubai's Al-Arabiya television channel said its bureau on the 17th floor also suffered damage.  

U.S. A-10 plane Goes Down

In a separate related development, a U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt strike aircraft went down outside Baghdad Tuesday, the U.S. military announced.

The plane, known as a leading U.S. tank killer - the same plane that fired two missiles at al-Jazeera offices - went down near Baghdad International Airport at about 0615 GMT, the Central Command announced without disclosing the causes of the crash.

"The pilot ejected safely from the aircraft and was recovered by coalition ground forces near the airport," the command said in a statement. The pilot was reported to be in good condition.