NYPost

ARAB NEWS CHANNEL FLEES AFGHANISTAN

November 15, 2001 -- THE Arab news channel al-Jazeera, which has had a virtual monopoly on live footage from inside Afghanistan, is being forced to pull its staff out of the country.

The news channel, which is seen as pro-Taliban by the Northern Alliance forces now advancing south of Kabul, has advised its staff of 10 to leave the country, acocording to reports yesterday.

Al-Jazeera has been heavily criticized by U.S. and Britain for broadcasting uncensored video statements from Osama bin Laden.

The main correspondent of al-Jazeera in Afghanistan was assaulted - and his equipment taken - as he fled Kabul during the Taliban retreat, the station reported yesterday.

The offices of the channel were destroyed by a bomb in an attack Monday night - but no one was in the building at the time.

U.S. officials yesterday said they had identified two locations in Kabul where al-Jazeera people worked, but that the location that was bombed was not one of them.

The al-Jazeera staff fled as Northern Alliance soldiers entered Kabul and the channel's management in London confirmed it may no longer be possible to operate in Afghanistan.

"We will see what's happening, because we are not very popular among the Northern Alliance," Muftah Al Suwaidan, al-Jazeera's London-based executive director, told The Gaurdian. "But we have told our people to leave."

After stopping to report from eastern Afghanistan, chief correspondent Tasir Alouni - who became a well-known face in the Arab world because of his live reports from Kabul - was expected to continue east to the Pakistan border.

The other al-Jazeera correspondent in Afghanistan, Yousif Alsholi, left the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar yesterday morning and has already filed a report from Queta, across the border in Pakistan, according to channel officials.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2001

Answers

Duh! Sweetie just made an observation: Why did Al Jazeera have TV studios in a country that didn't allow TV sets???

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2001

Telegraph

Arab journalist runs a gauntlet of terror By Sandra Laville in Quetta (Filed: 15/11/2001)

AN Arab reporter for al-Jazeera television was shot at and beaten by Afghans as he fled Kabul after an American missile struck his office.

Tayseer Allouni became a target of hatred as he travelled through Afghanistan following the liberation of the capital by the Northern Alliance. Mr Allouni, a Syrian, said yesterday: "What I saw is indescribable. I confess I am psychologically shocked."

He was told to leave Kabul by his editors in Qatar after the Taliban's retreat in case of mob violence. Minutes after leaving his office it was struck by a US missile. "I assume it was a mistake," he said.

Later, as he fled to the eastern province of Paktia, he was beaten and shot at by anti-Taliban Afghans. A number of Arabs in Afghanistan have been attacked by anti-Taliban Afghans in revenge for the support for the Islamic militia by Arab volunteers.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2001