From The Battlefield

Our reporters and photographers have spread out over the theater of war--from the mountainous northeastern reaches of Kurdish Iraq to the heart of the U.S.-led assault on Baghdad to the cities and military bases in surrounding countries. Many of our journalists risk their lives daily to bring readers the story of Gulf War II. Here is what a few of them saw and heard in the course of their work:

KATE BROOKS

This 25-year-old photographer picked up her first camera in high school and hasn't looked back. A journalistic veteran of last year's Afghan war, Brooks has been in northern Iraq for TIME since February and has covered, among other things, the assault by Kurds and U.S. Special forces on Ansar guerrillas. "The battle with Ansar was similar to Tora Bora" In Afghanistan, she observes. "The Ansar fighters were retreating into mountains, hiding in caves and breaking off into small groups."

JIM LACEY

"Prolonged tedium punctuated with moments of high excitement," is how TIME contributor Lacey describes traveling with the 101st Airborne. There was plenty of the latter last week, when Lacey witnessed 72 hours of fierce fighting during an assault on Najaf. Residents were initially suspicious of the invading troops, says Lacey, but "when they realized that the Americans were staying and that Saddam was gone, everything changed. The outpouring of support has been incredible."

ALEX PERRY

"One of the most remarkable things about covering the war with the U.S. Army," says Perry, who is embedded with a combat unit of the 3rd Infantry Division, "is how close to home we are on the other side of the world." There are nightly showings of Hollywood movies on DVD and "enough peanut butter and jelly for, well, an army." What disturbs him, however, is just how little he and the troops know of the people around them and the ancient land they inhabit. "I see others--Bedouins camping in the desert, families turning their cars around as they spot our approaching tanks--but they remain out of reach. I know I'll be back to explore whatever passes for peace in Iraq."

SIMON ROBINSON

For the South Africa Bureau Chief, currently traveling with the 1st Marine Division, there's a lot more hurrying up than waiting. a marine was shot and killed a few feet from Robinson last week during a fire fight in Kut. "That was the first time it happened to someone in our battalion," he says. "There were bullets whizzing across the hood of our humvee. I was, frankly, very scared." The stories, he says, almost write themselves. "You just have to survive to report them."

SALLY DONNELLY

While posted to Moscow in the mid-'90s, Donnelly covered Russia's gory conflict in Chechnya. Today she's the aviation correspondent for TIME, assigned to the relative calm of the U.S. military's nerve center in Qatar. "This was as close as I wanted to get to the battlefield now that I'm a wife and a mom of two," she says. Her dispatches on the air war and wry take on Centcom briefings have proved invaluable to TIME's coverage.