Wounded Iraqis cope with lifelong scars

Wounded Iraqis cope with lifelong scars
By Aseel Kami
1 hour, 59 minutes ago


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - For generations to come, Iraqis will have to cope with the physical and mental scars of tens of thousands of people severely injured in the violence of the past four years.

They include thousands of amputees, many of them children.

The date, time and place that changed Ali Abdullah's life is etched in his memory.

It was November 24, 2005. A Thursday morning. He was 13.

Ali's father runs a parking lot south of Baghdad. On that day, he had agreed to let his only son open the business by himself for the first time. It was a proud moment.

Ali went to work. In the middle of the morning he stepped out for breakfast just as a car bomb exploded nearby. Shrapnel destroyed one of his legs and an eye, and peppered his chest with wounds.

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