The insurgents in Iraq are being covered more critically by the Arab news media as their attacks increasingly target civilians.
An excerpt from the BBC story:
This has raised questions in some parts of the Arab media about the legitimacy of the groups carrying out the attacks, although the blame for the upsurge in violence is still mainly being placed on the Americans.
The coverage of the violence in Iraq by Arab satellite television stations has undergone a perceptible change in recent months.
Eyewitness anger
Al Jazeera - often accused by the Americans of stirring anti-US feeling - has adopted less of an "Us and Them" approach.
The militants are no longer referred to as the "resistance" but as gunmen or suicide bombers.
Eyewitnesses are shown denouncing them as "terrorists" - condemnations that are echoed by a parade of Iraqi officials and religious authorities.
One recent attack drew this comment from the al-Jazeera reporter: "Most of the time it's civilians who pay the price for the violence that has cost thousands of their lives".
Al-Jazeera's main rival, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya, has also shown little sympathy for the bombers - a recent report, instead, painted a favourable picture of British soldiers patrolling Basra.
Reporters targeted
Both channels have now been attacked by the militants, both physically and verbally.
Arab stations emphasise the bombers are often not IraqisA senior al-Arabiya correspondent in Iraq was lucky to survive a shooting last weekend claimed by one militant group, while a statement this week on an Islamist website purportedly from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group accused al-Jazeera of toeing the American line.
