Al Jazeera television on Tuesday said its cameraman Tarek Ayoub was killed during a US air raid on Baghdad, which also set the Arab network's office ablaze.

The Qatar-based satellite network said Ayoub, a Jordanian national, died in hospital after he was wounded in a missile strike on its office near the information ministry.

"We regret to inform you that our cameraman and correspondent Tarek Ayoub was killed on Tuesday morning during the US missile strike on our Baghdad office," Jazeera said in a statement read out during its news bulletin.

"He is a martyr," it said.

The network regularly refers to Iraqi civilians killed in the US-led war as 'martyrs'.

Abu Dhabi TV had broadcast footage of a huge fire blazing from the Jazeera office.

Jazeera correspondent Tayseer Alouni, who made his name covering the US-led war on Afghanistan, was seen carrying the wounded Ayoub into a car.

Alouni was one of only a few international correspondents allowed to operate under the aegis of the now defunct Taliban government.

Jazeera's office was one of the first targets hit when the US-backed Northern Alliance fighters routed the Taliban in Kabul.

"One missile hit the pavement in front of us, ripping out windows and doors and then one hit the generator," said Maher Abdullah, another Jazeera correspondent. "The office is now on fire."

Another member of Jazeera's Baghdad crew, Zohair al-Iraqi, was slightly wounded. Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul had earlier said US planes were bombing targets near the ministry.

Jazeera's Baghdad correspondent Majed Abdel Hadi called the US missile strike and Ayoub's death a ‘crime'.

"I will not be objective about this because we have been dragged into this conflict," he said, visibly upset. "We were targeted because the Americans don't want the world to see the crimes they are committing against the Iraqi people."

No comment from the US military was immediately available.

At least six journalists have died while covering the war waged by the United States and Britain to oust President Saddam Hussein.

Jazeera and fellow Arab network Abu Dhabi TV are the only two international channels with their own offices in Baghdad.

All other media organisations used to operate from a press centre at the information ministry, but they shifted to a hotel after the ministry was bombed.

Jazeera, one of the most widely watched channels in the Arab world, has come under fire from US and British officials for showing images of slain Western soldiers and US prisoners of war.

Jazeera's graphic images of the US-led war on Iraq have mesmerised millions of Arab viewers, who regard its coverage as more comprehensive and balanced than that of Western media.

Some US and British officials, however, say the network is biased towards Iraq. Some media analysts have accused Jazeera of airing Iraqi propaganda to gain exclusive footage -- a charge the network denies.

Eight-year-old Jazeera rose to prominence in the West by broadcasting exclusive comments by Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks in the US.