главная  | покер  | казино  | онлайн игры | деньги 

 
 

A short while later the rest of my convoy returned, snagged too by the police. I was in my jeep turning around at an officer’s bequest in order to clear out of the military zone before the war began. Instead I gave my colleagues a wave, swung the car north towards Iraq, and put my foot down on the accelerator. It was diesel so the engine only turned over sluggishly at first, but that didn’t worry me. I had an ace up my sleeve. I looked back to see two Kuwaiti police cars giving chase. I slowed down again. But this time I merely turned off my lights, flicked the car in 4*4 and headed off into the desert, and I drove until it was just me, the glow of a cigarette and stars in the desert. I was where I wanted to be.
READ MORE


13/10/03 The first bomb
It was a matter of timing. An interview had fallen through and we were heading home early. Quick phone call. 30 seconds. Saleh, my translator was just turning round in the front seat of the car to tell me about his daughter’s flu. Then the explosion...

21/09/03 The long road to Baghdad
It wasn't the most auspicious of beginnings to my Baghdad posting. The driver woke me at 4 am in the morning shortly after crossing over the border to Iraq, to tell me: 'engine finished. Please hide in boot' - the reason being we were now marooned in the heart of bandit country...
READ MORE

 

A few hours before the start of the Iraq war I was driving along the Kuwaiti border trying to find a place to hide. Iraqi artillery was landing in periodic bursts nearby and there wasn't a scrap of shelter in the bleak no man's land. Breaking into a war zone as a 23 year old rookie straight out of university no longer seemed like such a good idea. Then I bumped into the British army. "We've got a fruity mission," said the commanding officer. "Why don't you come along?" I did.

For two years I served as the Daily Telegraph's Baghdad bureau chief, covering uprisings, bombings and inaugural elections. Inbedinbaghdad is my blogger's account of reporting in a war zone, and the fears and frustrations that don't make the news. My book, Love in Baghdad, provides real-life accounts of love and death in a war zone. Through three interlocking romances I chart the rise and fall of the occupation, from the euphoria that greeted Saddam's overthrow, to the dark and bitter divorce. At least one of the stories, my own, has a happy ending..