This is an accepted version of this page Richard Engel (born September 16, 1973) is an American journalist and author who is the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News.

[2] Before joining NBC in May 2003, Engel reported on the start of the 2003 war in Iraq for ABC News as a freelance journalist in Baghdad.

His most recent book, And Then All Hell Broke Loose, published in 2016, is about his two-decade career in the Middle East as a freelance reporter.

[5][6] His father Peter, a former Goldman Sachs financier, and mother Nina, who ran an antiques store, feared for their son's future prospects because of his dyslexia.

He 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".

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

[21] 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.

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

[29] Engel reported on events from different perspectives by gaining and maintaining frequent access to U.S. military commanders, Sunni insurgents, Shiite militias, and Iraqi families.

[38][39][40] 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.

His reporting helped expose the role Egyptian labor strikes and worker protests played in the coup against Mubarak.

In March 2011, 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.

[citation needed] He 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.

[48][49] On December 13, 2012, Engel and his five crew members, Aziz Akyavaş, Ghazi Balkiz, John Kooistra, Ian Rivers, and Ammar Cheikh Omar, were abducted in Syria.

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