US missile destroys Al-Jazeera Kabul office
The Kabul office of the Arab satellite channel, heavily criticised by the US, was destroyed and the BBC office damaged by an American missile today, the channel’s managing director said.
No one was in the building before dawn when the Al-Jazeera office was hit. The ten staff members, including reporter Tasir Alouni, were believed to be safe, but their whereabouts were unknown, said managing director Mohammed Jassim al-Ali.
‘‘All our equipment has been destroyed, but we believe that all our crew are safe,’’ al-Ali said in Qatar, the channel’s headquarters. He estimated the loss at £550,000.
‘‘We don’t know where our crew members are. We are trying to see how we can communicate with them,’’ al-Ali said.
It may be difficult for Arab members of the crew, including Alouni, to move about in Kabul, where they might by mistaken for Arabs who had come to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban religious militia.
The target of the attack was unclear. The Taliban Ministry for the Suppression of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue was across the street from the Al-Jazeera office.
Taliban anti aircraft positions were located on a hill nearby and the neighbourhood, Wazir Akbar Khan, was home to many Taliban officials.
When asked if he thought Al-Jazeera’s office was deliberately targeted, al-Ali said, ‘‘They know where we are located and they know what equipment we have in our office and we also did not get any warning.’’
The same missile that destroyed the Al-Jazeera office also damaged the offices of The Associated Press and the BBC.
In Kabul today, one side of the house in which Al-Jazeera’s office was located had caved in, with twisted steel reinforcement rods jutting out. Alouni was believed to have left the city during the night. It wasn’t clear whether he left on his own or with the Taliban.
The bearded Alouni, usually appearing dressed in a khaki vest, had become familiar to Arab viewers around the world, providing live reports from Taliban controlled areas barred to most Western reporters.
He had often described US missiles hitting civilian areas and killing women and children.
The channel is known for airing taped statements said to be made inside Afghanistan by bin Laden and his aides.
American officials have criticised Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the Afghan campaign as inflammatory propaganda.
