A BBC cameraman was killed and a producer injured yesterday when they stepped on landmines while filming near the frontline in Kurdish northern Iraq.
Kaveh Ibrahim Golestan (52) a distinguished Iranian cameraman, was working with three others including the BBC correspondent Jim Muir in Kifri, two hours’ drive from Baghdad. Stuart Hughes, their producer, suffered an injured heel.
The team were visiting a fort on the edge of town which the Iraqi army had been shelling after abandoning it the previous day. Hughes (31) stepped out of the car and trod on a mine. Witnesses said Golestan confused the explosion with artillery fire and jumped out of the vehicle. He stepped on a second mine and died instantly.
Muir, the BBC’s veteran Tehran correspondent, escaped with cuts and bruises. Last night he was in hospital in Sulaimaniya and US special forces troops were arranging to fly him out.
Golestan had worked for the BBC for more than 10 years and had covered virtually all the big stories in the region, including the uprisings after the first Gulf war in 1991 and the 1980s war between Iran and Iraq.
He won a Pulitzer prize for his work. He and Muir had been on assignment in northern Iraq for two months.
Last night arrangements were being made to return his body to Tehran, where he lived with his wife and 19-year-old son.
The BBC’s director of news, Richard Sambrook, said: ”Kaveh Golestan was an outstanding photojournalist who had worked in support of freedom of expression in his native Iran and elsewhere and was well known to many western news organisations. He had worked with the BBC for many years. Our deepest sympathy goes to his family and friends.” – Guardian Unlimited Â