Namir Noor-Eldeen
| Namir Noor-Eldeen | |
|---|---|
Journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, killed by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, 2007.
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| Born |
September 1, 1984 Mosul, Iraq |
| Died | July 12, 2007 (aged 22) Baghdad, Iraq |
| Cause of death | Armor-piercing shell |
| Occupation | Photographer |
| Employer | Reuters |
Namir Noor-Eldeen (Arabic: نمير نورالدين) (September 1, 1984 – July 12, 2007) was an Iraqi freelance photojournalist. Noor-Eldeen, his assistant, Saeed Chmagh, and eight others were fired upon by U.S. military forces in the New Baghdad district of Baghdad, Iraq, during an airstrike on July 12, 2007. The group of ten was carrying at least two RPG-7s and one AK47. Noor-Eldeen and seven others were killed during the first strike.
Noor-Eldeen was born on September 1, 1984, in Mosul, Iraq. He developed an interest in photography and video from his family, and started training in those crafts. He was one of the first photographers trained by the Reuters news agency as part of a strategy to employ photojournalists with strong local knowledge and access to areas considered too dangerous for Western photographers to work in. Chris Helgren, former Reuters chief photographer who instigated the agency's plan, called Noor-Eldeen one of the star recruits of the initial recruitment stage, and said, "In Mosul, he started from nothing and is now the pre-eminent photographer in Northern Iraq."
He originally worked in Mosul, where he started to develop a strong reputation from his photos and his tendency to arrive at the scene of attacks quickly, even amid danger. One of his photos, of a masked insurgent carrying a grenade launcher and a police flak jacket after a November 2004 police station attack, gained particular attention and was described by New York Times journalist Michael Kamber as "one of the seminal images of the war — a single photo that captured Iraq's descent into chaos and the inability of the Iraqi and American governments to protect resources, or pretty much anything else at that point". Noor-Eldeen was transferred to Baghdad after he started receiving threats in Mosul from insurgents unhappy with his photos. During his time as a photographer, he had been shot in the leg, had his nose broken more than once, and had been detained and harassed, but his editors said he maintained a sense of energy and optimism.
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