Iraqi monument honors fallen Iraqi and foreign journalists

A memorial to fallen journalists killed during the war to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq was inaugurated in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah.

The Garden of Truth, as the memorial is called, was opened last month by Qubad Talabani, the deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, in front of invited dignitaries and family members of those killed covering the conflict.

The monument was built to "protect and keep alive the legacy of all journalists killed in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq," Talabani said. The deputy prime minister added that he hoped no more names would be added, though acknowledged the continuing threat to journalists working in the region.

In August, for example, two journalists were killed in a Turkish drone strike. Theirs were the last names added to the monument before its unveiling.

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists reports that around 140 journalists, including 117 documented Iraqi journalists as well as foreign reporters, were killed between 2003 and 2009 covering the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its aftermath.

But the Kurdish government list commemorates 551 people who lost their lives. The discrepancy in numbers is down to the paucity of reporting data during the conflict.

Among the names engraved on the walls are those of three freelance Iraqi journalists who were working for ABC News when they were killed.

In March 2004, Burhan Mazhour died while covering a firefight for ABC News in the central city of Fallujah.

U.S. Marines fought door to door that day to weed out insurgents and supporters of Hussein's regime. Mazhour, a cameraman, was killed by a single gunshot to the head while documenting the battle. A Marine and four other Iraqis were killed in the same incident. The U.S. military said it was unable to provide further details on Mazhour's death.

During the height of the conflict, U.S. troops rarely ventured into downtown Fallujah -- one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq for the U.S. military. Foreign media organizations like ABC News relied on local journalists to get coverage in places their Western counterparts could not access without military embeds because of the threat of kidnapping.

Also remembered at the Garden of Truth is ABC News cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz and his soundman Saif Laith Yousuf. They were killed in an ambush in a Shia neighborhood of Baghdad while returning home from work in May of 2007.

At the time, ABC News was operating inside a heavily guarded compound in the Karada district of the capital. Each day, Uldeen Aziz and Yousuf would venture out to gather video elements for reporting the sectarian conflict in the city and return with their footage later in the afternoon.

Sunni and Shia militias set up checkpoints across the city to control territory, suspicious of each other. It was at one of these checkpoints the two were ambushed.

Speaking to The Associated Press about the incident at the time, Reporters Without Borders representative Hajar Smouni described the dangers for local journalists.

"Journalists are targeted because they give information to local media and foreign media. This is not just a bombing," Smouni said. "This armed group is waiting for the journalists. They know where they live, they know where they work and they wait for them and they kill them."

"The fact that you work for an American media group makes you more vulnerable and more likely to be targeted," Smouni added.

It has been 17 years since Uldeen Aziz and Yousuf were forced from their car at a checkpoint. They were found dead the next day. Uldeen Aziz was 33 years old when killed. He left behind a wife and two daughters. Yousuf was 26.

Omar Abdulkader, a freelance video-journalist for ABC News was shot and badly wounded while covering a street battle in the northern city of Kirkuk. He was transferred to Germany for medical treatment and fully recovered. He is now working as a producer for CBS News based in Iraq.

Another ABC News team was hit in January 2006.

Anchorman Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were badly injured when the Iraqi military vehicle they were traveling in struck an IED. Woodruff still works on behalf of wounded veterans with his charity -- The Bob Woodruff Foundation -- raising millions of dollars annually.

In May 2006, only months after the ABC News team was hit, a CBS News team was killed when a car bomb exploded next to their convoy. Cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolin were killed instantly. Their names are included on the memorial in Sulaymaniyah.

The semi-autonomous Kurdish area was brutalized under Hussein, and after the fall of the Baghdad dictatorship it received wide leverage to manage its own affairs in the area.

The Garden of Truth, which is set in Azadi Park in the capital city, symbolizes a broader initiative towards reconciliation between the Kurdish and Iraq governments, but also strengthens the Kurdish regional government's international standing in the Middle East region.