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CBS Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan is back home in an undisclosed U.S. hospital after being beaten and sexually assaulted in Cairo's Tahrir Square last Friday. She was covering the celebration over Hosni Mubarak stepping down for "60 Minutes" when she was surrounded by a crowd and separated from her film crew. CBS' announcement today says Logan "suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers."
She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time.
The photo above was taken moments before the attack, CBS says.
* Updates: Logan is on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ Chairman Paul Steiger said today:
We have seen Lara's compassion at work while helping journalists who have faced brutal aggression while doing their jobs. She is a brilliant, courageous, and committed reporter. Our thoughts are with Lara as she recovers.
Four days before the attack, Logan talked to Charlie Rose about her recent detention by Egyptian authorities, her belief that she was now targeted by the government, and concern over her safety should she return. She left Egypt after being freed from detention, and told Rose it might not be smart for her to return, but that she would go back if the story was compelling. "It's very hard for me to be away from this story. I feel in one sense like a failure," she told Rose. She returned for the fall of Mubarak. A segment of the interview, which in hindsight is very powerful:
5:30 p.m. update: Sources say Logan may be released from the hospital Tuesday night or Wednesday and reunited with her two young children. Howard Kurtz/Daily Beast