49 Facts About Richard Engel

Richard Engel was born on September 16,1973 and is an American journalist and author who is the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News.

Richard Engel was assigned to that position on April 18,2008 after serving as the network's Middle East correspondent and Beirut bureau chief.

Richard Engel is known for having covered the Iraq War, the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War.

Richard Engel speaks and reads Arabic fluently and is fluent in Italian and Spanish.

Richard Engel received the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for his report "War Zone Diary".

Richard Engel wrote A Fist in the Hornet's Nest, published in 2004, about his experience covering the Iraq War from Baghdad.

Richard Engel grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City.

Richard Engel's father is Jewish, and his mother is Swedish.

Richard Engel attended the Riverdale Country School, a highly competitive college-prep school in New York City, where at first he struggled with his schoolwork and progress.

Richard Engel's schoolwork began to improve and he started to gain popularity with his peers.

Richard Engel then spent his junior year of high school in Italy and became fluent in Italian.

Richard Engel began to appreciate the difference in cultures and countries that influenced his future career choices.

Richard Engel later went to Stanford University, where he occasionally wrote for The Stanford Daily.

Richard Engel spent one summer as an unpaid intern at CNN Business News in New York City.

Richard Engel attributed his attraction to journalism as "the prospect of learning about new subjects and having the privilege of riding the train of history rather than watching it pass".

Richard Engel first lived in a ramshackle seven-story walk-up, learned Egyptian Arabic and worked as a freelance reporter in Cairo for four years.

Richard Engel worked for ABC News as a freelance journalist during the initial invasion of Iraq by US forces.

Richard Engel continued his coverage of the Iraq war in Baghdad as NBC's primary Iraq correspondent.

Richard Engel filed a number of reports from Lebanon during the 2006 Lebanon War.

In 2009, Richard Engel was stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan, covering the country's August presidential election.

In 2011, Richard Engel reported, at times through tear gas, on the Egyptian revolution.

Richard Engel covered the Libyan Civil War, where he was nearly shot in Benghazi.

Richard Engel reported on the Israel-Gaza conflict of 2012, the continued violence stemming from the revolution in Syria and its consequent civil war, and the political transition of Egypt following the election of President Mohamed Morsi in June 2012.

Engel is the host of the MSNBC special series On Assignment with Richard Engel, which won a 2019 Peabody Award.

Richard Engel was the only American television correspondent to remain in Baghdad for the entire war.

Richard Engel covered all major milestones of the war, including the first free Iraqi election and the capture, trial, and execution of Saddam Hussein.

Richard Engel reported on events from different perspectives by gaining and maintaining frequent access to US military commanders, Sunni insurgents, Shiite militias, and Iraqi families.

Richard Engel frequently traveled outside Iraq's Green Zone, the fortified international zone in central Baghdad, to report on the genuine state of Iraqi life.

At times, Richard Engel said found himself "dressed as a blue target" as a foreign journalist in Iraq.

Richard Engel survived kidnapping attempts, bombings, IED attacks, and ambushes.

Richard Engel spent years covering what he often describes as one of the most important stories of his generation, the Iraq War.

Richard Engel explains the conflict as occurring in six stages, or as six separate wars:.

In 2008, Richard Engel interviewed US Army General David Petraeus on the progress of the Iraq War and discussed the policies the general attributed to the recent successes in Iraq.

Richard Engel's award-winning documentary, War Zone Diary, chronicled the everyday realities of covering the war in Iraq.

Richard Engel frequently traveled to Afghanistan to report on the situation between US forces, the Afghani people, and the Taliban.

Richard Engel often traveled to the Korengal Valley, otherwise known as the "valley of death", one of the most dangerous outposts in Afghanistan.

Richard Engel reported on Firebase Restrepo and the soldiers of Viper Company stationed in the Korengal where he showed the fierce firefights taking place between US soldiers and Taliban forces.

Richard Engel produced "Tip of the Spear", a series of NBC reports on the hardships and dangers faced by American soldiers, for which he won a 2008 George Foster Peabody Award.

Richard Engel's coverage focused on the challenges of free elections in Afghanistan and the disruptions to democracy in the country.

Richard Engel followed the uprisings in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, and Yemen.

In Egypt, Richard Engel often reported from Tahrir Square, interviewing protestors in Tahrir Square as President Hosni Mubarak surrendered power to the Egyptian military.

Richard Engel's reporting helped expose the role Egyptian labor strikes and worker protests played in the coup against Mubarak.

Richard Engel reported on the revolution in Libya from the front lines, spending months traveling from rebel commanded areas in Benghazi to other rebel strongholds.

In March 2011, Richard Engel was caught in an artillery strike while interviewing fighters during a rebel advancement towards former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces outside the city of Ajdabiya.

Richard Engel traveled into Syria repeatedly with rebel militias and the Free Syrian Army.

Richard Engel reported on the advances made by rebel fighters within the country as well as the mass defections from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government army.

Richard Engel's account was however challenged from early on, with Jamie Dettmer of The Daily Beast citing unnamed sources, who believed Richard Engel and his team had been kidnapped by rogue rebel groups opposed to Assad.

Richard Engel was married to a fellow Stanford student; the couple divorced in 2005.

Henry Richard Engel was born with Rett syndrome, a genetic disorder that is extremely rare in males; he died in August 2022 at age 6.