Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Peter Arnett dies at 91

According to US media reports, Pulitzer Prize winner and war correspondent Peter Arnett passed away at the age of 91.

In 1996, Arnett won an International Reporting Award for his coverage of the Vietnam War for the Associated Press (AP). But he’s also known for his work at CNN, becoming a household name while covering the first Gulf War.

His career spanned decades, covering conflicts in countries including Iraq, Vietnam and El Salvador.

The New Zealand-born journalist died in California on Wednesday surrounded by family and friends, his son told reporters. He is receiving hospice care for prostate cancer.

Arnett initially served as a correspondent for The Associated Press in Vietnam from 1962 until the end of the war in 1975, often accompanying troops on missions.

During a speech in 2013, he paused to look at a map and recalled the moment he witnessed a soldier being shot in Vietnam.

“As the colonel stared at it, I heard four loud bangs and the bullet went through the map and entered his chest, inches from my face,” Arnett told the American Library Association.

“He fell to the ground at my feet.”

The reporter left the AP in 1981 to join CNN and later became famous for his coverage of the first Gulf War.

He was one of the few Western journalists left in Baghdad, and his first broadcast from Baghdad was interrupted by the sound of missile and air-raid sirens, according to the Associated Press.

“As you may have heard, there was an explosion near me,” he once exclaimed during a live broadcast.

While in Iraq, he interviewed then-President Saddam Hussein. Writing about the experience in the Roanoke Times, Arnett said he decided to “be as forceful in his questioning as the situation warranted.”

He continued: “I was not frightened by meeting the man known to many as the ‘Butcher of Baghdad.’ I did not think he would affect me any worse than the continued bombing of Baghdad threatened.”

In 1997, Arnett became the first Western journalist to interview Osama bin Laden in his secret hideout in Afghanistan, a few years before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

When asked about his plans, bin Laden told Arnett: “God willing, you will see and hear about them in the media,” according to multiple U.S. media reports.

Arnett later worked at NBC and was fired by the broadcaster after an interview with Iraqi state television in which he criticized U.S. military strategy.

He was hired by the Daily Mirror hours later and said he was “shocked” to be sacked.

“I reported the truth about what happened in Baghdad and will not apologize for it,” he wrote in a British newspaper.

Arnett was born in Riverton, New Zealand, in 1934, became a U.S. citizen and has lived in Southern California since 2014.

Edith Lederer, a former colleague who still works at AP, told the agency: “Peter Arnett was one of the greatest war correspondents of his generation — brave, fearless, and a beautiful writer and storyteller.

“His reporting in print and on camera will be a legacy for generations of aspiring journalists and historians.”

Meanwhile, retired photographer Nick Ut, who worked with Arnett in Vietnam, said he was “like a brother.”

“His death will leave a big hole in my life,” he told The Associated Press.

Arnett is survived by his wife, Nina Nguyen, and their children, Andrew and Elsa.