All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

Terry Lloyd, 22 March 2003, ITV News correspondent; disappeared in southern Iraq and was declared dead a day later. Lloyd and his television crew went missing after coming under fire, possibly from British forces, near Basra, while driving towards the port city in two vehicles. An ITN statement said it believed U.S. or British forces had opened fire after seeing Iraqi "irregulars" travelling down the road in the same direction. A well liked journalist in England and the UK. RIP. More here

Paul Moran

Paul Moran, 22 March 2003, freelance Australian cameraman; killed when an apparent human bomber detonated a car at a military checkpoint in north-eastern Iraq. Paul Moran, 39, who was working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), was killed by a suicide car bomb in northern Iraq on 22 March. RIP.

Gaby Rado

Gaby Rado, 30 March 2003, correspondent for Britain's Channel 4 TV; fell to his death from the roof of his hotel in the town of Sulaymania in northern Iraq. His wife had the following tribute published "We had such times together Gaby and I. We met, married and travelled the world. Foolish explorers! We made three brilliant, beautiful boys. Proud parents. We laughed, argued and dreamed together. He wasn't perfect, none of us are. But he was a good soul - deep and kind and strong. He was a fabulous father and a dear, dear, friend. We are all stars together you and I but one of the best and the brightest has been put out." Carol Rado , Wife 1980 - 2001 ,Friend always. RIP. More here.

Kaveh Golestan

Kaveh Golestan, 2 April 2003, Iranian freelance cameraman on an assignment for the BBC; killed after stepping on a landmine in northern Iraq. He was working for the BBC at the time. Kaveh Golestan was an outstanding photojournalist who had worked in support of freedom of expression in his native Iran and elsewhere and was well known to many western news organisations. He was survived by a wife and a 19-year-old son. RIP

Michael Kelly

Michael Kelly, 3 April 2003, US journalist and Washington Post columnist; killed while travelling with the US army's 3rd infantry division in Iraq. Kelly and an officer from the 3rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army perished when their Humvee crashed while evading Iraqi fire, according to a news report. RIP.

Kamaran Abd al-Razaq Muhammad

Kamaran Abd al-Razaq Muhammad, 6 April 2003, translator working for BBC; killed in northern Iraq in a "friendly fire" incident.Apologies for so little info and no photo. RIP.

David Bloom

David Bloom, 6 April 2003, NBC journalist; died due to illness. Bloom's death was not combat-related, NBC said. He died after he suffered a pulmonary embolism. Bloom was "embedded" with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, and had reported on the unit's advance toward Baghdad in recent days. RIP.

Julio Anguita Parrado

Julio Anguita Parrado, 7 April 2003, New York correspondent for El Mundo daily Spanish newspaper; killed in a missile attack while accompanying the US army's 3rd infantry division south of Baghdad. Julio, of Spanish newspaper El Mundo, was killed in an Iraqi missile attack on the US army base where he was working as an embedded journalist. The attack, on April 7, also killed German reporter Christian Liebig. Two US soldiers were also killed and 15 others wounded in the explosion. RIP.

Christian Liebig

Christian Liebig, 7 April 2003, reporter of German weekly magazine, Focus; killed in a missile attack while accompanying the US army's 3rd infantry division south of Baghdad. He was one of the few German journalists embedded with coalition troops. RIP.

Tariq Ayoub

Tariq Ayoub, 8 April 2003, Aljazeera TV channel correspondent; killed in a US air strike at Aljazeera office in Baghdad. This tribute is from his colleagues. "The blood of Tariq was fair game, as was the blood of other journalists working for Al-Jazeera and the Abu Dhabi network; both were bombed at the same time-followed by an attack on journalists in the Palestine Hotel, an attack that occurred probably because of its name. The message we take from Tariq's killing makes CENTCOM spokesman Vincent Brooks' statement seem quite ironic: "We bomb locations with precision, and we pay attention to locations where journalists are present." In reality, Tariq's killing demonstrates that the U.S. military preferred that Tariq and journalists like him ride on the back of an American tank, follow the troops around, eat and drink with them, and write in line with U.S. military desires. His death is a message directed to the remaining journalists and reporters who are still in the field, who are giving alternate perspectives on what is propagated by Bush, Rumsfeld, and others from the U.S. administration. Ayoub left a wife and a one-year-old daughter. In an interview with the station on the day of his death, his wife Dima said: "Eventually everyone will forget him, but we will never forget him. He is with God now." RIP. More here.

Taras Protsyuk

Taras Protsyuk, 8 April 2003, Reuters cameraman; killed when a US tank opened fire on Palestine hotel. Protsyuk is survived by his wife and an eight-year-old son. Taras, a Reuter's journalist from Ukraine, died instantly when a US tank shelled the Baghdad hotel where he was staying on April 8 2003. The attack came during heavy fighting between advancing US forces and Iraqis in the area around the Palestine Hotel, which was the base for dozens of media workers. Spanish cameraman Jose Couso was also killed in the attack. Three others, all Reuters journalists, were wounded. RIP.

Jose Couso

Jose Couso, 8 April 2003, cameraman for Spain's Telecinco TV; killed along with fellow journalist Taras Ayoub, when a US tank opened fire on Palestine hotel. Couso, 37, worked for the Spanish television channel Tele 5. He was wounded in the attack on the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel - the Reuters suite where many journalists were known by the US to be staying - and later died from his injuries. RIP. More here

Mario Podesta

Mario Podesta, 15 April 2003, correspondent for Argentina's America TV; died in a car crash while travelling from the Jordanian border to Baghdad. The Argentinean journalist was travelling with a press convoy trying to get to Baghdad when a tyre on his vehicle exploded 24 miles outside the capital. Podesta was the 13th journalist to be killed while covering the Iraq war. His colleague, camerawoman Veronica Cabrera, sustained serious injuries in the crash and died the next day. The pair were working on a freelance assignment for Argentina's America TV. RIP

Veronica Cabrera

Veronica Cabrera, 15 April 2003, freelance camerawoman for Argentina's America TV; died in a car crash while travelling from the Jordanian border to Baghdad. Veronica Cabrera was the first female journalist to be killed while covering the war in Iraq. Another Argentinean reporter said that the two were travelling with a convoy of journalists when gunshots were heard. He said the driver lost control after trying to avoid what they feared may have been an attack or attempted robbery. RIP.

Elizabeth Neuffer

Elizabeth Neuffer, 9 May 2003, foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe; killed in a car accident in Iraq. Elizabeth, an award-winning reporter for The Boston Globe, was killed in an automobile accident in Iraq while on assignment there covering the aftermath of the war. Walid Khalifa Hassan Al-Dulami, a translator, also died in the crash. RIP.

Walid Khalifa Hassan Al-Dulami

Walid Khalifa Hassan Al-Dulami, 9 May 2003, translator accompanying foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe in Iraq; killed in a car accident. Apologies for so little info on Walid, there are no photographs of him in search engines, please contact if you can find one. RIP.

Richard Wild

Richard Wild, 5 July 2003, British freelance cameraman; gunned down in central Baghdad. Richard Wild, 24, was shot by a lone gunman outside the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad; he was a former solider who had done some work for ITV. Originally from near Melrose, Roxburghshire, was a Lieutenant in the King's Regiment for a year, before attending Jesus College, Cambridge, to read history, and do an MPhil in medieval history. He had also spent six months in the London office of ITN as a picture researcher. ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis said the channel was shocked and saddened to hear of the reported killing. "In the six months that Richard worked at ITN, he was regarded as a dedicated and popular member of the newsroom team, particularly as he tracked all the material coming into ITN during the Iraq war." RIP.

Jeremy Little

Jeremy Little, 6 July 2003, Austrian journalist with NBC News and embedded with the US 3rd infantry division; Jeremy had been embedded with the US Third Infantry when the vehicle in which he was riding came under an RPG attack in Fallujah. He suffered severe abdominal wounds and was airlifted to Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany. There, he appeared to be recovering when infection set in, taking his life. His father and mother, John and Anna, and his brother, Timothy, were with him at the end. He was a freelance sound recordist. RIP.

Mazin Dana

Mazin Dana, 18 August 2003, a Palestinian cameraman with Reuters; shot dead by US soldiers while filming outside Baghdad's Abu Gharaib prison. According to Mazin's collegue Nael al-Shyoukhi, US troops approached the team on Sunday while they were filming and opened without warning fire-hitting Mazen in the chest. Video footage captured by Mazen minutes before his death records the incident and shows that there were no disturbances in the area at that time. He bled to death on the scene. RIP. More here

Mark Fineman

Mark Fineman, 23 September 2003, Los Angeles Times correspondent in Baghdad; died as a result of an apparent heart attack while waiting for an interview in the office of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC). Fineman was waiting with a colleague in the offices of the Iraqi Governing Council for an interview when he complained of chest pains and collapsed, Times staffers in Baghdad said. He was taken to a hospital but doctors could not revive him. RIP.

Ahmad Shawkat

Ahmad Shawkat, 28 October 2003, editor of the Iraqi weekly Bilah Ittijah (Without Direction); killed by unknown gunmen in the city of Mosul. Ahmad Shawkat spent his entire adult life dreaming of living in an Iraq where he could be free to write and speak his thoughts. Through physical and psychological torture, Saddam was never able to make this dream go away. It is unspeakably cruel that when Ahmad finally had the opportunity to help build that society, some other coward murdered him. Ahmad was a regular visitor to Saddam's torture chambers. The only reason he survived was that Saddam's regime loved money more than death. In the mid-1990s, he was arrested for the fourth time, for writing a collection of stories lampooning the great dictator. His family ransomed him from prison. As a last gesture, his jailers forced him to burn all the copies of his book in Mosul's bazaar. Ahmad fled to Erbil, in the Kurdish autonomous region 60 miles away, in 1997. More here from the Guardian from which this excerpt is taken. Ahmad Shawkat leaves his wife, eight children and six grandchildren. RIP.

Duraid Isa Muhammad

Duraid Isa Muhammad, 27 January 2004, producer and translator for CNN; killed in an ambush carried out by unknown assailants outside Baghdad. Duraid Isa Muhammad, a translator and producer, and Yasir Khatab, a driver, were shot dead as they were returning to Baghdad in a two-car convoy, Atlanta-based CNN said in a Baghdad-datelined release. RIP.

Ali Abdul Aziz

Ali Abdul Aziz, 18 March 2004, cameraman for Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel; shot dead by US troops in central Baghdad. Ali, a journalist for al-Arabiya television, died from wounds after being shot by US soldiers late Thursday, a correspondent from the Dubai-based satellite news channel said. "Ali al-Khatib died 30 minutes ago" in hospital, said Ahmad Salah, an al-Arabiyah correspondent, at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT). "Khatib was shot in the head", Salah said, his voice choked with tears. RIP.

Ali al-Khatib

Ali al-Khatib, 18 March 2004, al-Arabiya TV channel journalist in Iraq; shot dead by US troops in central Baghdad. His colleague Ali Abdul Aziz, a cameraman with the same station, was shot dead in the incident, which occurred near the Burj al-Hayat hotel in central Baghdad, the target of a rocket attack Thursday night. "My brother had asked US forces if they could film the Burj al-Hayat hotel and they told him it was fine. Moments later, a Volvo did not stop at the checkpoint and the soldiers opened fire," said the cameraman's brother Haidar Abdel Aziz. "My brother and his colleague wanted to leave, they ran to their car and an armoured vehicle opened fire on them." Both Abdul Aziz and Khatib were Iraqi nationals. RIP.

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Thanks to journalists.homestead.com for some of the photos and Aljazeera. Other info from the Guardian, BBC, Reuters and other sources. This page is simply a tribute to the journalists who died trying to report on the truth. Some of these journalists were perhaps targeted by US troops who seem to be covering up some of the deaths reported here.

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Most journalists are the dregs of the Earth, jobsworths who simply churn out 'acceptable' stories which the Government and Military approve of. Some of the journalists who are on the list above were brave men who took a chance to let the truth be told. Sadly, they told their last story, or took their last photograph or movie footage or sound recordings in a Country which they themselves had no part in trying to destroy. To those journalists who made there last journey to a Country torn by war and civil unrest in search of the truth, we salute you.

To all war correspondents out there, to all those who cover the horror of mankinds cruelty to mankind, maybe one day the horror which you captured may persuade us that war is a barbaric way to solve our differences. An independent journalist who covers war is a peacemaker. The pursuit of truth can bring grim consequences to those who pursue it. Thanks to those who have been killed in their duty of reporting on the truth and to those imprisoned and tortured.

Note: There is a big difference between an 'embedded reporter' and an independent reporter who does not travel with the military and is more likely to have an independent view of the situation.

For one of the UK's finest war Reporters - look at the work by Robert Frisk who writes for amongst others, the Independent.

Articles by Robert Fisk here Reporters without Frontiers - here