Reporter Loses a Hand Fielding Grenade in Iraq

A Time magazine reporter suffered severe shrapnel wounds and lost his hand when he tried to throw away a grenade tossed into the Humvee he was riding in with a Time photographer and two U.S. soldiers, colleagues said Thursday.

Time senior correspondent Michael Weisskopf and contributing photographer James Nachtwey were traveling with a U.S. Army patrol in Baghdad on Wednesday night when the attack occurred, a statement from Time Managing Editor Jim Kelly said.

The soldiers also were wounded, the U.S. military said, but gave no further information.

Time would not offer details on the incident. But a memo sent to Weisskopf’s former colleagues at the Washington Post said the grenade blew off his hand and wounded him in the chest and arms. The memo said Nachtwey received shrapnel wounds that were not as serious.

“According to people he works with at Time, he picked up the grenade and tossed it out, losing his right hand in the process while saving four lives,” the memo said.

A military spokesman said the journalists were with a unit of the Army’s 1st Armored Division.

Time said both were in stable condition and were awaiting transfer to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.

Nachtwey is an award-winning photographer known for haunting images of war and poverty. This year he shared a $1-million Dan David prize for documenting “the apocalyptic events of our time.”

Weisskopf is an award-winning correspondent based in Washington. He covers national politics and investigations and was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.