The Qatar-based station, whose coverage of the war has been criticized by both Washington and Iraq, said the car was bearing the Al-Jazeera insignia when it "came under fire on a highway outside Baghdad".

The driver reported the firing came from US forces, the channel said in a statement.

"Al-Jazeera deplores this incident and reaffirms its commitment to carry out its media activities with its usual professionalism. It asks all sides to treat journalists in line with international laws and conventions."

The statement did not specify when the incident occurred.

Separately, Al-Jazeera said, without elaborating, its correspondent in northern Iraq, Waddah Khanfar, was detained and then released, and that its office in the southern city of Basra "was the direct target of shelling" on April 2.

Basra was surrounded by coalition forces for two weeks before thousands of British troops poured in Sunday and Monday.

Al-Jazeera said it had provided the Pentagon with "all relevant information on the locations of its offices and the residences of its special envoys covering the war against Iraq and asked it to pass on the information to forces on the ground."

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on March 26 charged that Al-Jazeera had tried to "magnify the minor successes" by Iraqi forces and portrayed US efforts "in a negative light".

But Al-Jazeera also came in for criticism on Monday from Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf who charged that the Arab television was "marketing for the Americans".

The channel on Friday resumed full coverage from Iraq after Baghdad backed down on expelling two of its correspondents.

Al-Jazeera the previous day stopped work by all its reporters in Iraq in protest at the threatened action, although it continued to air pictures from its three offices in Iraq.

The station remains highly popular around the Arab world and has reported a 10-percent jump in viewer figures -- to 44 million -- since the start of the war March 20.

Al-Jazeera has also infuriated US officials by airing interviews with US prisoners of war and footage of dead US troops and, earlier, statements by Osama bin Laden.

Its office in Kabul was hit by US forces in November 2001 during the war that ousted the Taliban regime from Afghanistan.

SPACE.WIRE