Bassem Mroue

Atwar Bahjat was not only brutally killed along with two of her colleagues this week near Samarra but her funeral ended bloody as well with shootings and a car bomb that left 3 people dead and 10 wounded. What did this woman do in order to be murdered and also be shot at as she was carried in her coffin to her resting place in the Karkh Cemetery near the western neighborhood of Abu Ghraib. Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi said two policemen were killed and five were wounded when the convoy was shot at as it headed to the cemetery. When journalists, relatives and friends were returning to Baghdad later in the day, a car bomb exploded leaving one soldier dead and five others wounded. Luckily Al-Arabiya's team that went to the funeral returned safely to Baghdad. Baghdad is passing these days through a very difficult period. The bombing of the Imam Ali al-Hadi and Hassan al-Askari shrine in Samarra had terrible repercussions. Many Sunni mosques were attacked and near 200...

It was so sad and shocking to know the first thing in the morning when I turned on the television on Al-Arabiya that their Baghdad correspondent Atwar Bahjat and two of her colleagues were killed near the Iraqi city of Samarra. The station said the woman and her two colleagues, Adnan Khairallah and Khaled Mahmoud were stopped by two gunmen Wednesday afternoon near Samarra and shot near their car. They had tried to enter the city earlier in the day to cover a bombing that damaged a holy Shiite Muslim shrine but were prevented. I met Atwar few times in the past three years and was always impressed by how courageous she was in chasing the news whether it had to do with violence or politics. She confidently stood in front of the camera speaking live from Baghdad's dangerous streets. Why was she killed? I hope we will know one day when her killers are captured and brought to face justice. The death of Atwar and her colleagues raised the number of journalists killed in Iraq s...

It was Monday February 14, 2005 and I had some things to do before leaving to Egypt the next day on a 10-day vacation. I left home at about 11 and went to Hamra street where I bought my favorite newspaper, Al-Hayat. Then headed to my barber Ali in Makdisi street since I was in desperate need for a haircut after seven weeks in Iraq. My friend Hamza, who I was supposed to use his flat in Cairo called me and said he will ask the man who takes care of the apartment make sure it is cleaned before I arrive on Tuesday. Not finding Ali, I decided to go back home and give it another try in the afternoon. At 12:55 as I walked in Sidani Street near Bliss street I heard a massive explosion. I asked myself immediately whether what I heard was a blast or Israeli war planes have broke the sound barrier. I picked up my telephone and called my boss who was north of Beirut but confirmed he felt something. Things started getting clear when I saw thick black smoke billowing from downtown Beirut. ...

I was walking in downtown Beirut with my nephew Jad on Saturday night when my cellular telephone rang. I picked up the phone and found that it was my boss. "How are you today? Can you go to Syria now?" he asked?. When I ask what is going on there he said that demonstrators have already burnt the Danish and Norwegian embassies and are marching toward the French mission. "The situation is developing very quickly. If you want to go you have to do it as soon as possible," he said. For days there have been demonstrations in Muslim countries protesting a caricature offensive to Islam's Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper. I took Jad to his parents house then drove home packed quickly and took a car to Damascus. It was my first trip to Syria since Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon in April 2005. Less than two hours after leaving Beirut there I was in the Syrian capital. I was surprised that crossing the border is still as simple as it was in the...