Leila Fadel
Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based in Los Angeles, covering issues of culture, diversity, and race.
Most recently, she was NPR's international correspondent based in Cairo and covered the wave of revolts in the Middle East and their aftermaths in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and beyond. Her stories brought us to the heart of a state-ordered massacre of pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Cairo in 2013 when police shot into crowds of people to clear them and killed between 1,000 and 2,000 people. She told us the tales of a coup in Egypt and what it is like for a country to go through a military overthrow of an elected government. She covered the fall of Mosul to ISIS in 2014 and documented the harrowing tales of the Yazidi women who were kidnapped and enslaved by the group. Her coverage also included stories of human smugglers in Egypt and the Syrian families desperate and willing to pay to risk their lives and cross a turbulent ocean for Europe.
She was awarded the Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club for her coverage of the 2013 coup in Egypt and the toll it took on the country and Egyptian families. In 2017 she earned a Gracie award for the story of a single mother in Tunisia whose two eldest daughters were brainwashed and joined ISIS. The mother was fighting to make sure it didn't happen to her younger girls.
Before joining NPR, she covered the Middle East for The Washington Post as the Cairo Bureau Chief. Prior to her position as Cairo Bureau Chief for the Post, she covered the Iraq war for nearly five years with Knight Ridder, McClatchy Newspapers, and later the Washington Post. Her foreign coverage of the devastating human toll of the Iraq war earned her the George. R. Polk award in 2007. In 2016 she was the Council on Foreign Relations Edward R. Murrow fellow.
Leila Fadel is a Lebanese-American journalist who speaks conversational Arabic and was raised in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
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President Trump's timeline for an end to the Iran war continues to shift, U.S. and Iran block the Strait of Hormuz, trapping the Gulf's oil and gas, Trump's allies defend his remarks about Pope Leo.
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Is the U.S. safer after the Trump administration launched a war in Iran? NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with former U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns.
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Vance to serve as lead US negotiator in peace talks to end Iran war, Israel and Lebanon to hold ceasefire talks, NASA's Artemis II astronauts return to Earth Friday.
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NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Danny Citrinowicz, senior researcher at Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies, about how aligned Israel and the U.S. are under the ceasefire.
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Iran is insisting a ceasefire in Lebanon is part of the deal to pause the fighting in the Middle East. Israel and President Trump say it's not.
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To discuss what's likely to be next for U.S. military strategy in the Iran war, NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with retired Gen. Joseph Votel.
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U.S. and Iran agree to two week ceasefire, how Iranians are responding to the ceasefire, the effects of the war in Iran give investors around the world whiplash.
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Iranian state media showed images of Iranians celebrating the news of the ceasefire, but for many, the deal also means an end to any hope of real regime change.
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Trump repeats threat to bomb Iran's infrastructure if a deal isn't reached, strikes in the Middle East intensify as Trump's deadline looms, Artemis II crew heads home after historic moon mission.
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NPR's Leila Fadel asks Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, about how much the U.S. has spent on the Iran war.