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Sajida Mohammed is 11 years old and is originally from Fallujah, in the Anbar province of Iraq. A bomb hit her arm and then exploded in front of her face while she was playing football (soccer) in the street.
Hussein Talib, of Mosul, is 9 years old. He has been in Amman for 1 year and 3 months. A bomb went off while he was inside of his home. It killed his mother.
Umar Qassim, 14, is from Diyala, Iraq. Umar was playing in the road when an explosion caused the telephone poles around him to fall down. The wires attached to the poles almost completely severed Umar’s forearms. He lost both hands and the majority of his lower arms.
Mohammed Abed Khamis is from Diyala, Iraq. He was shot in the face by a US soldier while backing out of his driveway. The injury left him blind in his left eye and destroyed the left side of his jaw. He now has false teeth in the left side of his jaw.
Rieyad Mahdi, 25, is originally from Falluja, Iraq. He was a policeman, working at a checkpoint when he was injured. His flash light had been duplicated and a bomb was inserted inside of it. It detonated when he turned it on.
Ahmad Khalifa Mohammed, 13, is from Diyala, Iraq. A car full of explosives rammed into his home and detonated. He was the only member of his family injured.
Ali Haider, 29, was born in Dikhar, Iraq. Mr. Haider was in Baghdad walking home from work when a bomb exploded in the street and left him permanently disabled from the waist down. He is married and has three children.
Sameer Kamal Huzur, 7, was injured in her home after it caught on fire while she was playing.
Ahmed Khatan, 12, is originally from Baghdad, Iraq. An American helicopter fired a missile onto his home. His left arm was severely injured but not disabled.
Saja Kheir Allah, 6, is from Mosul, Iraq. She was sleeping in her home when an explosion set it on fire.
Haider Fthdel, 31, was born in Najaf, Iraq. He was walking to work from his home when an improvised explosive device exploded. He lost one leg and is now in a wheelchair. Doctors are hoping to save his other leg.

Faces of the Iraq war


When US-led military forces invaded Iraq ten years ago this week, few imagined that the ensuing fighting would last so long and leave so many victims. More than 173,000 Iraqis were killed in war-related incidents beween March 20, 2003, and the end of 2012, the United Nations says. Some 2.5 million people - or 12 per cent of Iraq's population - are physically disabled due to injuries suffered during the war.

Among the many groups of professionals who fled Iraq's turmoil were doctors. The ratio of physicians to patients today is one per 1,428 Iraqis. That has left Iraqis with horrific wounds suffered from improvised explosive devices, car bombs and shrapnel without adequate medical treatment.

To meet some the need, the relief agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in 2006 set up a centre for reconstructive surgery at the former Qasr Jeddah Hotel in Amman. The building accommodates 273 live-in patients and is staffed by paid doctors from Jordan, Iraq and Syria. It is supported entirely by private donations.

Candidates for treatment at the centre are screened by one of nine MSF liaison officers stationed throughout Iraq. Most patients admitted to the centre require at least two operations and at least four months of convalescence and continued treatment. Last year, 15 per cent of the centre's patients were children, who are accompanied throughout their stay at the centre by at least one family member.

Events of the past decade in Iraq have changed its people forever, none more so than the Iraqis portrayed here. With the help of skilled and dedicated doctors, they struggle with both the physical and mental scars inflicted by a decade of nightmares. They endeavour each day to reclaim parts of their lives the war took away, knowing some can never be brought back.

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