Tareq Ayyoub ( ar, طارق أيوب, Ṭāriq ‘Ayyūb, also Romanized ''Tareq Ayoub'', ''Tariq Ayoub'', ''Tarek Ayoub'', ''Tarik Ayub'', 1968 - 8 April 2003) was an

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

nationality, employed by

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

, and previously by

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

. Ayyoub was killed in 2003 when two

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

s, fired from by an American ground-attack aircraft, struck the

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

headquarters of the Al Jazeera Satellite Channel during the 2003 US-led Invasion of Iraq."Foreign media suffer Baghdad losses,"
April 8, 2003, ''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

,'' retrieved September 11, 2022 The Al Jazeera station was clearly marked as a media centre, and the US military had been informed of its location in February.

Biography

Born in

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

in 1968, Ayyoub received his Masters in English from

Calicut University The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to be set up in nor ...

. Beginning in 1998, he covered the domestic and international politics of

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

for the English-language ''

Jordan Times ''The Jordan Times'' is an English-language daily newspaper based in Amman, Jordan. History Established in 1975, ''The Jordan Times'' is owned by the Jordan Press Foundation, a shareholding company which also runs the Arabic-language daily '' A ...

''.

Death

Personal protective equipment of Tareq Ayyoub

On the morning of 8 April 2003, Ayyoub, along with his second cameraman, an Iraqi named Zuheir, was covering a pitched battle between the American and Iraqi troops from the roof of Al-Jazeera's Baghdad office. At approximately 7:45 a.m., an American

A-10 Warthog The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1976, it is named for the Republic ...

ground-attack aircraft turned toward Al-Jazeera's office and began to descend upon it. Maher Abdullah, the station's Baghdad correspondent, witnessed the A-10's attack run and gave the following description, "The plane was flying so low that those of us downstairs thought it would land – that's how close it was. We actually heard the

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

being launched. It was a direct hit – the missile actually exploded against our electrical generator, and Tareq died almost at once, Zuheir was injured."

Context

On the same day, the

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area. ...

satellite station was hit by 'Army Fire' in a different section of Baghdad, and an American tank fired shells at

Palestine Hotel The Palestine Hotel (Arabic: فندق فلسطين), often referred to simply as ''The Palestine'', is an 18-story hotel in Baghdad, Iraq located on Firdos Square near from Saadon, across from the Ishtar Hotel. It has long been favoured by journa ...

, killing journalists

Taras Protsyuk Taras Protsyuk ( uk, Тарас Процюк; January 16, 1968 – April 8, 2003) was a Ukrainian TV cameraman working for Reuters, who was killed during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Biography Born in Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine), Protsyuk wa ...

of ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

'' and Jose Couso of the Spanish television station, Telecinco.

Reaction

Many of the Arab reporters for Al Jazeera saw this as an intentional attack on their personnel, but the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

claimed later that day that the death had been an accident, and that hostile fire had been seen originating from the Al Jazeera headquarters.

Notes

External links

Al-Jazeera 'hit by missile'
BBC News, 8 April 2003. *

Robert Fisk Robert Fisk (12 July 194630 October 2020) was a writer and journalist who held British and Irish citizenship. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. His stanc ...

, SF Bay Guardian. 26 April 2003.
IFJ calls for re-opening of investigation into Ayyoub's death
IFEX, 24 November 2005.
The war on al-Jazeera
Comment by

Dima Tareq Tahboub Dima Tahboub (Arabic:ديمة طهبوب; born 1976, Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above s ...

, the widow of Tareq Ayyoub,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...