Kim Gamel, a former veteran Associated Press correspondent who covered conflicts and uprisings around the Middle East, including the height of the Iraq war and the Arab Spring, has died, according to her brother-in-law. She was 57.Gamel died Wednesday in Idaho after a yearslong battle with lymphoma, Lee Ruff said.Gamel brought the same care and compassion to her work reporting and directing coverage in war zones that she offered to her colleagues. She pursued the story of an Iraqi girl who was blinded in a Baghdad car bombing — bringing attention to her plight and leading to donations and offers of medical care.“Kim was an energetic reporter and careful editor who made contacts easily, from military members and diplomats to store clerks and day laborers,” said Robert H. Reid, the AP’s former Middle East regional editor who worked with Gamel at the news agency and later at Stars and Stripes.
“She had a wide circle of friends and enjoyed mentoring less experienced journalists as much as producing her own work,” he said.Even on the busiest days, Gamel always offered colleagues and guests at the Baghdad bureau cups of coffee — made in the machine she kept on her desk with the fine grounds she brought into the country. If a colleague was sick, Gamel offered some of the medication she also brought with her from the U.S.
