Al-Jazeera's Basra Hotel Bombed

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.

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.

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.

"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.

"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.

"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, Mussol and Baghdad."

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.

In November 2001 al-Jazeera's base in the Afghan capital was destroyed by a US bomb that also damaged the nearby BBC office.

At the time the Pentagon denied it had deliberately targeted al-Jazeera, but said it could not explain why the Kabul office was hit.