In an eerie chain of coincidences, insurgents' mortar attacks were launched at the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad at exactly the same time that NPR's Dina Temple-Raston had gone there recently on reporting assignments.
"It's happened four or five times," said Temple-Raston, who is on a voluntary, five-week temporary assignment in Iraq. "I've been in crazy war zones before but I've never had mortar shot at me before. They are incredibly scary because if you have a war soundtrack in your head, what you hear is mortars."
Temple-Raston is working in NPR's Baghdad bureau located outside the Green Zone. She's joined by NPR correspondents Anne Garrels and Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, producer Jack Zahora, six translators and four drivers. Covering the war costs the non-profit, largely listener supported public radio network at least $1 million a year.
categories: Middle East, NPR Reporters
