What is it like to face massive incoming gunfire from Taliban insurgents while hunkering down in a machine gun nest, tracer bullets streaming towards the enemy positions? What does it feel like to be part of a major NATO operation as it prepares to go into battle? Reuters print and television journalists have been answering some of those questions in the course of the last few weeks after joining an exclusive embed with Britain's Royal Marines at the forefront of NATO operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan's lawless Helmand province. In a spectacular series of edits seen by millions of viewers around the world, RVN Paris cameraman Laurent Hamida captured a series of battles between the Marines and the Taliban from the very front of the front lines as the insurgents launched fearsome attacks on the British troops. In a series of eyewitness stories from the 'Desert of Death', London correspondent Peter Graff gave a detailed description of the ebb-and-flow of battle and the struggle that the troops face as the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force takes over the war against the Taliban from the United States. Media clients around the world snapped up the articles and images, with major broadcasters wholly reliant on the exclusive video and print. The embed, in which the Reuters journalists lived with the troops, was set up after months of negotiations between the UK bureau and the British Ministry of Defence To watch one of Laurent's video reports click here.
To read about the debate surrounding embedded journalists, which include first-hand accounts of his experiences, click here.
To read some of Peter's stories, click here.
Yann Tessier Europe Editor, Television Mark Thompson Bureau Chief, UK & Ireland
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