Reporter’s translator killed in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq – She had never flown before and she was scared, Luma, 28, had confessed before her first-ever trip outside her home country.

Don’t be silly, I told my Iraqi translator. You are one of the bravest people I know.

Well, she told me, she prayed for three things just in case. The first was that God would protect her mother, the second that God would take care of her daughter and the third that we would someday go to the United States.

Of course, I reassured her, while we waited for our flight to Jordan at Baghdad International Airport. The next trip will be to the United States.

On Nov. 24, Luma – who was featured in a Washington Post travel story published in this section on Oct. 24 – was shot and killed at a U.S. Army base in Baghdad. The Army is investigating.

She leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter, her mother and a brother.