Seven Months in Iraq
Mauricio Lima
AFP
I’ve been in Iraq since November 2003, for seven months altogether, over three different periods of time. Despite the fact that I was constantly in a war situation, I tried to keep track of daily life, so as to report on the people and not only on the conflict itself. I traveled through the country when attacks and ambushes rarely happened, until Saddam’s capture in Tikrit. The second time I spent a summer month attached to US Marines in Fallujah, between the first and the second battles.
Preview
The last time, I was based in Mosul, embedded full time with the US Army because of more kidnapping of foreign journalists and several attacks on civilians and coalition forces. The last mission was the most unsafe because the US forces were the main target. It was nearly impossible to cover both sides, and Iraqi civilians were especially nervous about US army patrols. Most civilians looked unhappy with the US Army presence which they saw more as an occupation force than a protection force.
