Dateline video journalist Fouad Hady says his Nation of Tears story was so traumatic to film, he's still getting flashbacks about it.
He was in his native Iraq, when a bomb exploded in a nearby apartment building in Baghdad. Amidst the rubble, he follows a distraught family, who've lost their son Hassoun, just days short of his sixth birthday.
“The most difficult part of the story is that the people are in a state of anger, are very tense.” Fouad tells the Dateline website in a behind the scenes interview about how he found the story.
“You risk being attacked because they're angry and tired… I do sympathise with them. I try to console them as much as possible.”
“Even now when I sit and watch the vision, and I see, I remember, I get flashbacks, I hurt.” he says.
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New Al Qaeda technique
His story also tells of the fear of ordinary Iraqis over bomb attacks, and a new Al Qaeda technique of renting shops in apartment buildings and then packing them with explosives.
Residents lose not only their loved ones, but their homes and all their possessions. The authorities try and stop Fouad filming, but local people are all too keen to draw attention to their plight.
“What was the crime of those who died?”, asks one local resident. “The young people and children, what did they do?”
Streets full of stories
Fouad says the streets of Iraq are full of stories, and he hopes his work will help make Australians more aware of what's happening there.
