Anthony Shadid
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In a Moment, Lives Get Blown Apart

In Journalism, Pulitzer Entries 2004, Pulitzer Prize

BAGHDAD, March 26 — Shards of corrugated tin dangled from roofs like chimes, colliding on the winds of a savage sandstorm. Shattered pipes poured sewage into the streets. The charred carcasses of cars sat smoldering, hurled onto the sidewalk.

Ali Abdel-Jabbar watched helplessly as his friend, Mohammed Abdel-Sattar, lay on the ground, his legs torn off. He lived. Across the street was the severed hand of Samad Rabai, tossed gracelessly in a pool of blood and mud. He died.

In a moment, two explosions transformed a busy stretch of life today into a junkyard of mangled wires, uprooted trees, toppled lights, anguish and grief.

Iraqi officials said at least 14 people were killed and 30 injured in the blasts — a count that matched hospital estimates — in the biggest loss of civilian life in Baghdad since U.S. and British air attacks began last week. The explosions devastated a 100-yard swath of shops, homes and a restaurant in the working-class neighborhood of Shaab, on Baghdad’s northern outskirts.

Pentagon officials denied responsibility for the bombing, saying there were no U.S. targets near the neighborhood. But U.S. military officials in Qatar said that U.S. aircraft targeting Iraqi surface-to-air missile launchers in a residential area in Baghdad had fired precision-guided weapons at about the same time as the bombing, possibly causing civilian damage.

In the Shaab neighborhood, the carnage spoke of the helplessness and dread that has enveloped the capital.

“Who accepts this?” shouted George Said, a mechanic whose store was littered with spilled oil, a door torn from its hinges onto the floor. “Does America like this, does Bush like this, do the American people like this? How can they accept the destruction?”

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From The 2004 Pulitzer Prize Winners for International Reporting 

Tagged with: Baghdad • Iraq • Pulitzer Entries 2004 
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We’re in a Dark, Dark Tunnel Enduring Life, and Now War
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    House of Stone

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  • A note from Nada Bakri

    "I do not approve of and will not be a part of any public discussion of Anthony's passing. It does nothing but sadden Anthony's children to have to endure repeated public discussion of the circumstances of their father's death."
    –Nada Bakri, wife of the late Anthony Shadid
  • Twtitter Tributes

    anna_lamadda: #lacasadipietra di #anthonyshadid è un libro DA LEGGERE. Un ottimo consiglio di @robertosaviano
    93 months ago
    beatnikjourno: Yes. RT @jessradio Remembering #MarieColvin and #AnthonyShadid today on #InternationalPressFreedomDay. Two great journalists we lost.
    94 months ago
    2imen: RT @abumuqawama: RT @Waleed_Hazbun: In memory, #AnthonyShadid last lecture at #AUB http://t.co/qkqKp0UG
    94 months ago
    v____: RT @abumuqawama: RT @Waleed_Hazbun: In memory, #AnthonyShadid last lecture at #AUB http://t.co/qkqKp0UG
    94 months ago
    ShadiElkarra: RT @camanpour: Deeply honored to receive the #AnthonyShadid award for journalism at Tuesday April 16 @AAIUSA Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards in DC.
    94 months ago
    ojsutton: RT @camanpour: Deeply honored to receive the #AnthonyShadid award for journalism at Tuesday April 16 @AAIUSA Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards in DC.
    94 months ago
  • Reviews

    • “…wise, compassionate storytelling” : Review from Annia Ciezadlo
    • House of Stone Review from Dave Eggers
    • “I was captivated, instantly”: Dave Cullen
    • Reviews for House of Stone
  • News

    • Interrogating the NY Times’ Anthony Shadid
    • Anthony Shadid’s Interview on NPR’s Fresh Air
    • Anthony Shadid on Qatar
    • Across Divide in Iraq, a Sunni Courts Shiites
    • In Assad’s Syria, There Is No Imagination
  • Pulitzer Entries

    • In Thuluyah, reverberations of a U.S. raid
    • ‘People woke up, and they were gone’
    • In Anbar, U.S.-Allied Tribal Chiefs Feel Deep Sense of Abandonment
    • Worries About Kurdish-Arab Conflict Move to Fore in Iraq
    • In the City of Cement
    • A Quite but Undeniable Cultural Legacy
    • A Journey Into the Iraq of Recollection
    • No One Values the Victims Anymore
    • New Paths to Power Emerge in Iraq
    • In Iraq, the Day After