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Moments before American photojournalist Chris Hon-
dros took this picture of Samar Hassan, the little girl was in
the backseat of her family’s car as they drove home from the
Iraqi city of Tall ‘Afar. Now Samar was an orphan, her par-
ents shot dead by U.S. soldiers who had opened fire because
they feared the car might be carrying insurgents or a sui-
cide bomber. It was January 2005, and the war in Iraq was
at its most brutal. Such horrific accidents were not rare in
that chaotic conflict, but they had never been documented
in real time. Hondros, who worked for Getty Images, was
embedded with the Army unit when the shooting happened.
He transmitted his photographs immediately, and by the
following day they were published around the world. The
images led the U.S. military to revise its checkpoint proce-
dures, but their greater effect was in compelling an already
skeptical public to ask why American soldiers were killing
the people they had ostensibly come to liberate and protect.
Hondros was killed during the civil war in Libya
i n 2 011.