CBS' Lara Logan Recounts Sexual Assault by Egyptian Mob
CBS correspondent said she thought she would die in Egypt.
May 1, 2011— -- CBS correspondent Lara Logan said she had no doubt she "was in the process of dying" as a mob sexually assaulted her in Egypt's Tahrir Square while she was covering the political uprising in that country.
"There was no doubt in my mind that I was in the process of dying," Logan told CBS News' Scott Pelley in an interview that aired today on CBS' "60 Minutes." "I thought, 'Not only am I going to die, but it's going to be just a torturous death that's going to go on forever.'"
Logan, 40, spent four days in the hospital following the Feb. 11 attack, in which an estimated 200 to 300 men separated her from her news crew and bodyguard, surrounded her, ripped off her clothing and beat her.
"For an extended period of time, they raped me with their hands," Logan said in the interview.
She said the attack, with the mob "trying to tear my limbs off my body" and sexually assaulting her with their hands, lasted for approximately a half-hour before she was rescued by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.
The violence against her unfolded amid jubilation at the news that longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had decided to step down. The uprising in Egypt appeared to have a domino effect by helping to spark political uprisings in other Middle Eastern nations.
In the days before Mubarak decided to quit, dozens of reporters were targeted by angry supporters of the Egyptian regime. An Egyptian photographer was shot and killed as he took photos of the crowd, a Swedish journalist was stabbed and many international news agencies quickly pulled their crews from Egypt.
Journalist organizations estimated that more than 100 reporters were assaulted, threatened, arrested or improperly detained.
Logan, who is the chief foreign correspondent for CBS, returned to work on Wednesday.
"I am so much stronger [now]," she told Pelley, adding she hoped her story would empower other victims of sexual assault, particular female reporters.
The native South African is married and has two children. Logan has reported from war zones for 18 years, and has spoken about the dangers of her job.
"I have to think about my children growing up without their mom," Logan told CBS' "60 Minutes Overtime," a weekly Web show, in an interview that took place before the attack. "I mean, I don't want to think about it. I hate to think about it."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.