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I met Talal on the first day of Operation Arrowhead Ripper. There was
a shootout going on somewhere very close. Many shots could be heard,
yet Talal had come in to report on the operation. He saw my camera and
walked up showing his press ID.
I saw him frequently over the next month. He told me about trying to
escape Iraq with his family. They headed through the mountains of
Turkey, but had to turn back after his money was heisted by a coyote.
Talal said he is half Polish, and his mother lives outside of Iraq and he
misses her terribly, having not seen her since he was a child. She is
Polish, he said, and his father Iraqi. I believe that he said he
talks with his mother sometimes over Skype.
After I reported that an Iraqi man had told me al Qaeda bakes children
to serve to their families, I told Talal there was a great uproar over
that report. Talal said that he had heard only that al Qaeda had baked
a child’s head, and that he remembered it having been in a news
report. He knows well what Iraq is up against. His courage is
unfathomable.
According to the website of the Committee to Protect Journalists:
The Associated Press reported that Mohammed’s friend, who wished to remain anonymous, provided the journalist’s family with the information after his release. He said they had been taken to a farm and kept apart, but heard the gunmen interrogating and beating Mohammed in an adjacent room, according to the AP. The reasons behind Mohammed’s abduction remained unclear, the AP said. The news organization said it did not release information of the kidnapping earlier because “it had been in touch with U.S. military authorities in the region in the hope of finding Mohammed.”
