Filing and crying

Image One in this article has been haunting me since I first saw it yesterday on my twitter feed. It followed me everywhere. On the social nets. On the internets. When I woke up at 3AM and flipped on the TV, the late night newscasters were covering the multiple attacks in Afghanistan.

And tonight comes, a rare back story from a photographer. The photo-journalist describes the experience of taking that profound photo. He's no rookie:

He realized he was amid a circle of bodies, almost exactly at the place where the explosion had happened. He saw a few pairs of eyes moving, but body parts were scattered on the floor. His hands were shaking. Having covered Afghanistan — the place where he was born — since 2004, Mr. Hossaini has seen suicide attacks before. In 2007, he photographed an attack that killed 70 civilians. He cried then, too.

But this time was different.

Late night news guy informed me there were three simultaneous attacks. Shiites from Pakistan. Who couldn't have possibly gained access without Taliban assistance. Don't even want to think about what that means.

But I have a feeling this won't be the last photo that wakes me up in the middle of the night. Not if we're going to be there for two more years. No, I don't know why.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]