Perspective: 'The Bradley, upside down, was on fire. Seven died'

We were in a private house in Amiriya, a Sunni suburb near Baghdad airport. The soldiers were talking to residents when we heard gunfire and an explosion. It was late afternoon Baghdad time, and my second patrol of the day. A call came through the radio - we headed to the scene.

The Stryker vehicle platoon I was with was acting as the Quick Reaction Force that day, supporting the US military and Iraqi army in the area. When you hear an explosion you don't know what it is. We arrived to find a lot of smoke and moved into a house to assess whether there was shooting still going on.

As we came out, I saw the Bradley, which had been flipped upside down and was on fire. It's a heavy armoured and tracked vehicle, a cross between a tank and an armoured personnel carrier.

Read the rest at the Guardian and see Sean Smith's Photo Essay