TIME reporter Abigail Hauslohner recently took a road trip with photographer Yuri Kozyrev and their Iraqi fixer/driver/translator Sami, to southeastern Iraq and the cities of Amara and Basra. Much of the areas in the southeastern provinces had been too dangerous and essentially off limits to journalists for the past few years — except for those traveling in a military convoy. But recent operations by Iraqi government forces have quieted some of the violence, making it safer for westerners to travel and work there.
Abigail took a small video camera with her and, coupled with Yuri’s photos, I was able to put together a video segment that shows areas not recently seen in western media.
The results of our combined efforts can be viewed at this link. The video complement’s Abigail’s article today about her trip to Al-Faw, a town just across the Shatt Al-Arab (the mouth of the combined Tigris and Euphrates rivers) from Iran.