each and every day mortar fire, artillery fire, rocket fire, .50-caliber machine guns

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http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2007/05/02/news/local_news/1023135.txt

Decatur man has made his career of being where the news is, and lately that's with the AP in Baghdad

<snip>Since October, Hurst has been serving as Baghdad bureau chief for The Associated Press. He works 16-hour days, seven days a week - reporting, editing, broadcasting and managing the 100-employee operation from a large house near the Green Zone.

While enjoying time with his wife, Kathy, in the home they recently purchased on the city's west side, Hurst said he has never experienced anything quite like Iraq.

"I covered a lot of minor wars in southern Russia, after the breakup of the Soviet Union," Hurst said. "But those were wars you went to and covered, then left. Now this is a posting right in the middle of a war, and there's no getting away from it.

"It's an assignment to cover what has become a very difficult, extended, bloody, devastating conflict, in a very important country." snip

"Everyone in Baghdad who is not a local Iraqi has surrounded themselves as much as possible with security because it is such a haphazard and dangerous place now," Hurst said.

The threat of violence is always close at hand. Rockets and mortars fired from Sadr City, a Baghdad slum, fly over the AP building en route to the Green Zone.

"It's always on your mind when you're out and about," Hurst said. "It's always on our minds when we're inside, because each and every day (there are) explosions and mortar fire, artillery fire, rocket fire, .50-caliber machine guns, AK-47s.