Reuters Transmits Photo of Iraqi's Severed Head

By: E&P Staff Most of the most grisly images from the Iraq war have been kept out of sight, but perhaps the wraps are coming off as the war rages on and violence grows ever more crude.

Wire services sometimes move graphic photos that few if any editors run. Rarely does a closeup picture of a dead body appear in print. But Reuters transmitted a particularly vivid shot on Sunday: a dead Iraqi's severed head being removed from a box, taken by photographer Helmiy Al Azawi.

Here is the caption:

"ATTENTION EDITORS - VISUAL COVERAGE OF SCENES OF INJURY OR DEATH A morgue employee removes a man's head from a box found on the streets of Baquba, Iraq, June 3, 2006. Witnesses said a note in the box said the head belonged to Sheikh Abdel Aziz Hamad al Mashhadani, the Imam of a Sunni mosque on the outskirts of Baghdad, and accused him of killing four physicians from the Baghdad area."