Steven Vincent was a 49-year-old freelance journalist who was also known as the "Basra Blogger". He was abducted along with his intepreter Nouriya Itais Wadi in central Basra by 4 armed men in a white police car. Mr. Vincent's body was found several hours later, as was Ms. Wadi. Both had been shot multiple times, but Ms. Weidi had survived.

Mr. Vincent was a vocal critic of both the growing fundamentalism in southern Iraq and the failure of coalition forces to check its spread. Two days before his death, he had published a piece in the New York Times alleging that many members of Basra's police force operated as a death squad for radical cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr.

Steven Vincent leaves behind his wife Lisa, parents and a sister.