Ben Barnabas, The Guardian April 14, 2003
It is not just the military who are returning to a hero's welcome - the BBC's Baghdad reporter Rageh Omaar arrived back in Britain yesterday widely regarded as having won the journalistic battle of Baghdad for the broadcaster.
BBC bosses praised their new star as rumours emerged that American news networks had their sights on recruiting the Somalian-born reporter.
From his common vantage point on the rooftop of the Palestine Hotel in central Baghdad, Omaar quickly became the face of the Iraqi conflict for the British public.
Liberated from his Iraqi minders last Wednesday, Omaar won 48% of the 4.3 million British viewers in the defining moment of the fall of the regime - when the statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad was pulled down.
Since the start of the war nearly 90% of the population have watched him on either the weekday BBC news bulletins or on News 24. Many of his broadcasts have been syndicated across the US, where The Washington Post labelled him the "Scud Stud" within a week of the first American missile hitting Baghdad.
Rumours are now rife that the Johannesburg-based married father of one will follow British correspondent Lara Logan, who was snapped up to report for CNN last year.
The BBC will be delighted by the plaudits its correspondent is receiving after a war in which it has been attacked by the government at times for its coverage.
Omaar's colleague, Radio 4's Andrew Gilligan, was targeted by Downing Street after reporting the day after the regime fell that Baghdadis were experiencing their "first days of freedom in more fear than they have ever known before."
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Omaar, 36, said he had chuckled when he heard pundits deploring an "Iraqi bias" in Baghdad bulletins.
"Yes, there are daily briefings by Iraqi ministers and carefully organised trips for journalists in the presence of ministry officials," he wrote.
"But by putting such severe restrictions on where we are allowed to set up our broadcasting equipment, the regime ensures that many reports that they so diligently help us to gather are simply never sent out."
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