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The scene of malformed newborns has become common for doctors and nurses across Iraq. |
BAGHDAD— In new Iraq, women like Leila Omar Wassin are heart-broken giving birth to babies born malformed because of the deadly substances years of war have sown in their bodies.
"My first baby died after he was born without legs and the second one died few days ago because his spinal cord was exposed and his head was too big," the 36-old woman told IslamOnline.net.
Wassim is one of the victims of the massive bombing of Fallujah in 2004, when the US army admittedly used depleted uranium munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste.
Doctors told Wassim the restricted weapon sowed her body with lethal material that caused her children's birth defects and the subsequent deaths.
"If I knew my body was sick, I wouldn’t have tried to bring a new life to the world."
Experts affirm that many like Wassim, especially in areas severely-hit by radioactive material over the years, suffer the same pain.
"US troops attacks have been carried out with high quantity of chemicals that makes the genetic material easily affected, resulting in babies being born only to survive for a few hours," Dr. A'dab Hatim, a pediatrician at a Baghdad hospital, told IOL.
"The most common malformations are exposed spinal cord, lack of limbs, multiple fingers, eye deformities, large cerebral material and exposed organs," she added.
After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used in shelling Fallujah.
It also admitted to having used more than 1,200 tons of depleted uranium munitions in Iraq during the 2003 invasion.
Exacerbated, Ignored
The plight of babies' birth defects has exacerbated over the years, becoming a common occurrence for doctors and nurses.
"Baghdad has shown a high level of contamination," a doctor and a researcher at a Red Crescent Hospital in Baghdad told IOL, requesting anonymity.
"In 2005, we had about 600 cases reported at public hospitals and three years latter, this number has doubled."
In Fallujah alone, some 220 cases of disfigured newborns have been reported since 2005.
"We have been informed of similar cases at private hospitals. However they don’t appear at our research because we need families' agreement and this is hard to get."
Doctors complain that the lack of information and the neglect complicate the problem.
"Ninety percent of all families do not have access to information, some are illiterate, and others are poor," notes Dr. Rafid Abdel-Rassoul, of the Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad.
Dr. Hatim, the pediatrician, stresses the need for an awareness campaign to open minds and help dozens of children dying every month due to lack of information.
"But the government is just worried about politics."
Doctors insist that its the responsibility of the US to try undo part of the damage its has caused.
"The US government has spent billions on this war but none to revert the problems caused by its dangerous weapons," fumes Dr. Bashier Mazim, another doctor in Baghdad University.
"I can say that those newborn are the result of the American disaster that befell our land."
Wassin, the grieved mother who lost her two babies, also heaps the blame on the occupation for her misery.
"We are victims of this unfair war."
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