Jane Arraf

Short Biography

Jane Arraf is a journalist currently based in Baghdad for the Christian Science Monitor.She previously served as CNN's Baghdad Bureau Chief and Senior Correspondent. During the war in Iraq she covered live the battles for Fallujah, Samarra and Tel Afar and was the only television correspondent embedded with U.S. forces fighting the Mehdi Army in Najaf in 2004. She also covered live the bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad and the first Iraqi elections in 2005. Arraf headed CNN's first permanent Baghdad bureau in 1998 and for several years was the only Western correspondent permanently based in the Iraqi capital. She was posted as Istanbul bureau chief in 2001-2002, returning to Baghdad before being expelled by the Iraqi government in November, 2002 for what it termed hostile reporting. Returning through northern Iraq, she covered the war live as the front line shifted, including extensive coverage of Iraqi civilians and live coverage from Mosul before the arrival of US forces. She also covered India, Albania, NATO, Afghanistan, Jordan and the Gulf States for CNN.