The Unseen War

 

General Photography

I refused to participate in the [journalists’] pool system. I was in the Gulf for many weeks as the build-up of troops took place, and then sat out the ‘air war’, and flew from Paris to Riyadh as soon as the ground war began. I arrived at the ‘mile of death’ the morning the day the war stopped. It was very early in the morning and few other journalists were present. When I arrived at the scene of this incredible carnage, strewn all over on this mile stretch were cars and trucks with wheels still turning, radios still playing, and there were bodies scattered along the road. Many people have asked the question ‘how many people died’ during the war with Iraq and the question has never been well answered. That first morning, I saw and photographed a U.S. Military ‘graves detail’ bury in large graves many bodies.

Journalist Peter Turnley in the introduction to a grisly series of photos from the first Gulf War.