Al Jazeera cameraman killed in Libya, in government ambush of news crew

Al Jazeera has announced that one of its cameramen, Ali Hassan Al Jaber, was killed after a reporting team for the Arabic-language channel was ambushed by government forces near the town of Benghazi.

The news sparked an outpouring of emotion and support for the network and the slain cameraman.

Wadah Khanfar, the director general of the Al Jazeera Network, announced the death in broadcast remarks, saying "the network will not be silent after death of our cameraman" and would seek to prosecute the perpetrators.

Read a longer account, with archives of tweets from people close to the story, here.

• [Anonymous]

  when will the world stop standing by watching this happen?!!!
  i pray it will end soon… inshala

• [Anonymous]

  The item here describes al Jazeera as ” the Arabic-language channel”. Of course, aJ has an English feed too so I’m thinking we need to find a new phrase.

  • [humanresource]

    Call it what it is. The only news channel.

  • [Omar Chatriwala]

    Clarifying that point – it simply means he was a cameraman for the Arabic news channel, not the English one.

    • [emmdeeaych]

      They use different cameras for aJ in Arabic and English? That would not add to their credibility. Could you source that information? I find it difficult to grasp on one persons word alone.

• [ericmartinex1]

  Al Jazeera is out to sensationalize(so much for Pan Arabism), get viewers, and make a buck just like RT’s incessant disaster porn of Japan and CNN’s hyping of the carncinogen/child molester of the day.

  Reporters go through war zones, war zones are very dangerous places, some reporters may realize this, these places are filled with many different kinds of people in fear and twitchy nerves and lots of confusion.

  All this “plight” for the mysterious “freedom fighters” are only going to bound to cause escalation from the US and Europe.

• [Anonymous]

  The bravery of these youngsters and the blood shed here cannot be denied. The time has come for these people of courage to reclaim their homeland instead of running away to eke out a miserable existence in Europe or the UK. here is the simple fact: the only people who can keep the politicians even remotely honest are the journalists. It takes a very special person with special courage to become involved in exposing what goes on. It is always known to be very dangerous and Ali Hassan Al Jaber knew when he began his career that he could be harmed in many ways or killed–and yet he carried on in his devotion to show the world what is going on. The journalists of today are the historians of tomorrow. through their eyes and their reporting can we hope to learn the truth. Ali Hassan Al Jaber deserves our praise and thanks for his courage and his sacrifice in showing the world the truth. to say “Al Jazeera is out to sensationalize(so much for Pan Arabism), get viewers, and make a buck” is insulting and denigrating and cynical. The price of freedom is paid for in blood, whether the blood of a freedom fighter, a medic, a civilian, a relief worker, or a reporter, and honor and respect is what is owed to them.

• [anharmyenone]

  The French are taking the lead by recognizing the free Libyan’s council as the legitimate government of Libya, which would allow military assistance to the uprising by France without violating international law. The USA should follow suit quickly, then work with France and other willing countries to assist the free Libyans.

• [sweettrouble]

  Govt ambush??? aljazeera is jumping to conclusions and accusing the Gaddafi govt without merit. It makes me question the validity of alot of these reports. It is terrible this poor man was killed, but I seriously doubt the Gaddafi govt had anything to do with this for a few reasons.

  1) Bengazy is a Rebel stronghold and has been for weeks. There is no Gaddafi personel.
  2) Gaddafi is too preoccupied claiming back the rebel held cites to send assassins into occupied territory in the hope of locating AlJeezera staff.
  3) killing of civilians and innocent people will further the cause for a no fly zone and for the West to act. Who would benefit most from this? Very biased reporting with AlJeezera and CNN.

  • [Ocker3]

    Really? So Gov forces wouldn’t be attacking people moving in vehicles, perhaps carrying large, elongated objects? Cameras and rocket launchers look quite similar at a distance, as we learned quite tragically in Iraq, when another news crew was attacked. Or perhaps they were just attacking anything that came down that particular road.