Sticky bombs make many Iraqi children orphans

The thirty-year old Ali was fighting for his life on November 3, 2011, after being seriously injured by a sticky bomb.

As he lay in his hospital bed, he thought of his children whom he might never see again if he died.

He wanted to see his wife and children, but he passed away before they arrived.

On the same day, another sticky bomb placed under a train exploded in the west of Baghdad between the areas of al-mashahda and Tagi, causing the death of the three train drivers.

One of the drivers, Ahmed, did not die right away. For the next two days, his family was full of hope that he would survive and spend the Eid al-Adha festival with them. Eid is a time for people to visit each other and celebrate together. His children prayed for his recovery.

But in the end he died.

While other children would happily play and celebrate the festival, the families and the orphans of the three drivers would be crying for them.

Iraqi people today are wondering how long this situation which is affecting the whole society will last.

A child in Iraq, photo credit: lachicaphoto via Flickr (some rights reserved)

From a peak in 2006 and 2007, violence has fallen sharply in Iraq, but killings and attacks still occur almost daily as U.S. forces are preparing to withdraw after more than eight years since their invasion that helped topple the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

According to statistics from the Iraqi Health Ministry, 161 civilians were killed in October in Iraq as a result of bomb attacks and other forms of violence, up from 110 in September.

On the first day of the Eid al-Adha festival, three bomb explosions hit the food and clothes market Al-shorja in the centre of Baghdad, the most popular and crowded market in the city, killing at least 10 people and injuring 20.

With the increase of violence in Iraq and the impending withdrawal of the U.S army at the end of the year, Iraqi people are wondering whether the Iraqi army has the ability to manage the security in the country and have control on the situation.

By Maryam Mohammed Jaafar

The Iraqi journalist Maryam Mohammed Jaafar earlier this year won the Kamel Shiaa Prize for Iraqi press freedom for her article “Violence is spreading among the Iraqi children”. Maryam is currently spending three months in Brussels under the auspices of the EJC.

Maryam Mohammed Jaafar meets EJC editors Sueli Brodin and Hanna McLean at the EJC office in Maastricht, the Netherlands

Posted on November 18, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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