Featuring headlines such as "US 'precision' bomb destroys civilian bus," "Misinformation Basra" and "Hunger turns Iraqi civilians against US 'saviours'", the site billed itself as "objective and balanced global news coverage and analysis."

The site, which is devoted to news on the conflict in Iraq, joins a chorus of voices emanating from the war zone, including individual blogs as well as the many TV broadcasts, radio reports and newspaper dispatches. However, the Al Jazeera site was accessible only intermittently on Monday.

Although much of the difference between Al Jazeera's reports and those of other news outlets had to do with the tone and choice of stories, in some cases the site offered information at odds with that reported by Western media outlets. For example, it was widely reported in the Western press that bombs from U.S. coalition aircraft appeared to have hit a bus carrying Syrian civilians in Iraq near the Syrian border. Al Jazeera, however, in one article reported, "A missile is said to have strayed and hit a bus in Syria, killing five innocent passengers."

Al Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, has been billed as the CNN of the Middle East. It has drawn some criticism, first for broadcasting unedited speeches of Osama Bin Laden and more recently for broadcasting video of U.S. soldiers said to be held prisoner by Iraq.

U.S. military leaders have criticized Iraq for showing videotapes of captured U.S. soldiers, and some have extended that criticism to Al Jazeera. "Needless to say, television networks that carry such pictures are, I would say, doing something that's unfortunate," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday in an interview on CNN's Late Edition.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the site.

Although some are likely to value a contrasting voice, the site is sure to be controversial, with features including "Coalition of the willing has become a joke" and "Has Israeli lobby influenced this war?"

Among the dispatches Monday was what Al Jazeera described as an eyewitness account of the assault on Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

"Baghdad witnessed intense bombardment last night," begins the unbylined report, attributed simply to Al Jazeera. "Glass panes on windows and doors of the Al Jazeera Satellite TV office were shattered as shock waves ripped through the city. We still can smell gunpowder and smoke here."

The report goes on to give details on an attack on the Al-Salam palace, which Al Jazeera said is used for hosting heads of state.

"We visited this palace along with the Iraqi Minister of Information and saw the damage," the report said. "It was completely empty and devoid of the alleged weapons of mass destruction."

The site also features a section devoted to "global reaction," which focuses entirely on opposition to the war, including various protests as well as antiwar sentiments expressed during Sunday's Academy Awards show.