A true martyr

I don't know why I'm blogging, perhaps because I can't think what else to do. I'm sitting numb at my computer having emailed and called and recalled and rerecalled everyone I can think of in Iraq. I heard a few hours ago that one of my closest friends in Iraq has just been killed returning from Najaf with a Red Cross convoy which he had arranged to provide desperately needed medical supplies.

Ghareeb is (I can't yet face saying "was") one of the most selfless people I have ever met. For the past 18 months he has been travelling up and down the country helping anyone and everyone, from paying for an injured girl to be airlifted abroad to recieve a prosthetic limb to helping secure funding for an independent newspaper, to chaperoning around a naive British visitor (me).

Aparently a roadside bomb damaged his car and then gunmen shot him and carried away our mutual friend and blogger Enzo Balduni. I think it must have been gangsters, since none of the genuine Resistance would have attacked a Red Cross convoy or killed Gharib who was well known across Iraq. Please could anyone reading this blog pray for Enzo's safety, that he may be released unharmed soon, and also for Ghareebs friends and family who will all be heartbroken.

A photo of Ghareeb taken by Enzo a few days ago.