Iraq journalists killed by US gunships

Iraq war's critical accident by US Army

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Namir Noor-Eldeen

“Namir was an editor’s dream... on top of every story,” said Bob Strong, Reuters's former chief photographer in Iraq. “His nose had been broken more than once, he’d been shot in the leg, detained, harassed and threatened, but his quick smile and energy never faded.”

Mr Noor-Eldeen was one of two Reuters employees cut down in a Baghdad street in 2007 by gunfire from a US Apache helicopter. He had been working on a feature, photographing wrestlers in a Baghdad gym, and was killed alongside his friend and driver Saeed Chmagh as they went to investigate street clashes between insurgents and the US military.

Dramatic cockpit footage of their deaths filmed through the crosshairs of a gun, along with voice recordings of the American helicopter pilots, were published today on the Wikileaks website.

Mr Noor-Eldeen, who was 22 and unmarried, was born in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 1984. In 2003 he became one of the first Iraqis to be recruited and trained by Reuters as part of the agency's strategy to employ photographers with better local knowledge and access to areas that had become too dangerous for Western photographers to work in.

Chris Helgren, Reuters' then chief photographer in the region, who instigated the plan, had described Noor-Eldeen as one of the agency's star recruits. "In Mosul, he started from nothing and is now the pre-eminent photographer in Northern Iraq," he had said.

Mr Noor-Eldeen moved on to Reuters' news bureau in Baghdad after receiving threats.

Mr Helgren said that he had left behind an impressive body of work. "When he first came to my attention, Namir was an energetic teenager in Mosul whose family was involved in photography and video. He took an interest in the trade and with training, and a few critiques, it quickly became obvious he was going to become one of the new stars in Iraqi photojournalism.

"He had an urgency that suited the front pages of the news business but also a tender eye that brought humanity via quiet moments to a vicious war. I remember one of a wounded Kurdish girl with her legs in bandages while wrapped in a faux fur coat and a second of a boy picking up shards of broken plates in the family dining room after an ammunition dump blast rocked their house."

Colleagues among the 60-strong staff in the Baghdad bureau paid tribute to him. “He lived more in 22 years than most people do in a lifetime,” one said.

He was "a very generous man who gave away a lot of his belongings to friends", said another.

“Namir was our favourite little brother with a big heart and a great talent who achieved great things in such a short time,” Alastair Macdonald, Reuters's former Baghdad bureau chief, said.

Steve Crisp added: “I can still see him walking out of the [Reuters] compound with his cameras slung over his shoulders laughing with Saeed on his way to his last assignment.”

"He was enormously liked, very popular, remembered as a warm and easygoing colleague and an enthusiastic and competitive professional," a spokeswoman for Reuters said. "His death is a huge loss to the Reuters team in Baghdad and he will be deeply missed."

Saeed Chmagh

who died in the same shooting, was Mr Noor-Eldeen's long-time friend, driver and camera assistant.

A colleague in Reuters's Baghdad bureau said that he "was a man of principles and high values, the peacemaker of the office".

He was a "very humble and polite gentleman", who financially supported both his own immediate family and three others through his work.

Born in Iraq on January 1, 1967, Mr Chmagh had worked for Reuters since before the United States-led invasion in 2003 and had four children. He also supported his sister’s family after her husband was killed by insurgents. At the time of his death he was aged 40, and described as devoted family man.

Bob Strong, Reuters' former chief photographer in Iraq, said: “Saeed was such a gentle man in a chaotic and violent world.”

Chris Helgren said: "There are few 'good news' stories to be had in this war and wars by definition are tales of violence. And to get there, drivers like Saeed Chmagh are indispensable.

"Saeed had a reputation of being fiercely loyal and appeared fearless to me. If you ever needed to get quickly to a dangerous area, passing chicanes of barbed wire and boobytraps, Saeed was your man. But he also had a very quiet, loving side and spoke often of his kids."

Tom Glocer, the chief executive of Reuters, said in 2007: "Once again we are left mourning colleagues who have met an untimely death while doing their job in Iraq. Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh's outstanding contribution to reporting on the unfolding events in Iraq has been vital. They stand alongside other colleagues in Reuters who have died doing a job that they believe in. Our sympathies and thoughts are with their families, friends and colleagues."