This is a Global Player Original podcast.

This is a global original podcast produced by Global and Forest Sounds.

Just a heads up, this podcast contains strong language and adult themes that may not be suitable for all listeners.

We're in Iraq, late 2005.

Caroline Hawley, the BBC's Baghdad correspondent, is playing ping-pong with her colleagues.

But they're not neglecting their duty.

The streets of the sprawling city are simply too dangerous to enter.

Office table tennis is the only exercise they've had in days.

We were pretty much grounded. It was pretty confined.

Caroline is exactly the kind of person you'd expect to report from conflict zones.

She's brilliantly smart, tenacious and compassionate.

When she took this post two years ago, Saddam Hussein's dictatorship had just fallen,

and she was at the centre of the story.

It was an extraordinary time because people were able for the first time to talk openly about the torment they'd endured under Saddam Hussein for so long.

He felt that history was unfolding in front of your eyes.

But over the past year, her ability to do her job has become more and more restricted.

Growing conflict between Iraqi insurgents and US troops is one danger,

but the bigger threat is suicide bombs.

And there have been hundreds.

Caroline and her colleagues have been trying to document the horror.

We used to literally get in the car and follow the smoke,

and the aftermath was horrific.

...