When Raed Saleh heard the impact of the mortar shell near his house on October 23, he hoped that his son, Sabhaan, had not been allowed out to play, as he had been all summer.
“There’s an area next to the house where he and four other kids spend the afternoons, and the bomb came, detonating near where the kids were playing,” said the father of three.
The impact and shrapnel from the ISIL shell injured all five of the children, aged six to eight years old.
“The other children had broken bones, shrapnel wounds, scrapes and cuts. My son’s left arm was severely injured and we were unable to treat it in Iraq,” said Mr Saleh, who is from Al Dhuluiya.
Sabhaan, along with other civilian casualties of the continuing turmoil in Iraq, were flown to the UAE from Erbil to receive medical treatment provided by the UAE Government.
“He’s a lion, he’s been very brave. I think the only thing he is afraid of are needles, but aside from that he’s a great boy,” Mr Saleh said of his son.
The six-year-old is now being transferred to a UAE hospital to begin intensive rehabilitation and treatment of ligaments in his left arm. “He was supposed to start school this year, but of course all of that had to be postponed because of the fighting,” Mr Saleh said.
Many people have overlooked the fact that the war has put a halt to everyday life, and his compatriots in Al Dhuluiya have left their work to defend their homes, according to him. “From the start ISIL tried to come in but we didn’t let them, and we’ve been fighting them for about four months,” said Mr Saleh.
The fighting against the Islamist militants has caused 100 deaths and 750 injuries, but ISIL has yet to penetrate their defences.
As for Sabhaan, the shelling had made him more skittish but did not change his playful nature, said Mr Saleh.
nalwasmi@thenational.ae