War Update: Saddam City

By John Burnett

Published April 9, 2003 at 11:00 PM CDT

NPR's John Burnett reports on the situation in Saddam City, the sprawling Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. It began as a huge housing development in the 1960s but has become a slum. Marines in Saddam City have encountered ecstatic crowds and utter destitution.

John Burnett

As NPR's Southwest correspondent based in Austin, Texas, John Burnett covers immigration, border affairs, Texas news and other national assignments. In 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, he won national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for continuing coverage of the immigration beat. In 2020, Burnett along with other NPR journalists, were finalists for a duPont-Columbia Award for their coverage of the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico program. In December 2018, Burnett was invited to participate in a workshop on Refugees, Immigration and Border Security in Western Europe, sponsored by the RIAS Berlin Commission.

See stories by John Burnett