Bomb victim Ali arrives in Britain

AN Iraqi boy who lost his arms and his parents in an Allied bombing raid arrived in Britain from Kuwait yesterday, where he will receive medical treatment.

Ali Abbas, 13, was given a US army hat as a souvenir and pledges from Kuwait’s government to pay for his treatment until he reaches adulthood.

He boarded a plane with his uncle and another injured Iraqi boy, 14-year-old Ahmed Hamza, whose left foot and right hand were amputated by a US bomb near Baghdad. His father carried him to the bus that drove them to the aircraft.

Both boys are to be fitted with prosthetic limbs at the Roehampton Rehabilitation Centre in south-west London. They were evacuated to Kuwait in mid-April and treated for burns caused by US missiles that struck their homes. Ali lost his father, his pregnant mother, his brother and 13 other relatives. Ahmed lost a sister.

Ali’s story drew international attention after pictures of him crying in pain at a Baghdad hospital were beamed across the world.

At the airport’s VIP hall yesterday, members of the US army military police came to see the boys and give them camouflage hats and arm bands.

The boys beamed when they saw the team whose job has been to reunite Iraqi children treated in Kuwait with their families, and giggled as they put the hats on their heads and called themselves “cowboys”.

Kuwait health minister Mohammed al-Jarrallah accompanied the boys and their relatives to the airport. He said he expected the boys to be in Britain for about three months.

“But as far as we are concerned, we are committed to treating them until they are fully grown,” he said.

Kuwait, a major US ally that was the launch pad for the US-British war against Iraq, was also going to pay for psychological care received by the boys and their families and repairs to their homes in Iraq.

This oil-rich state was the only Arab country to openly support the war in Iraq and has been striving to prove to the region that it has no squabble with the Iraqi people. It has been offering a continuous supply of humanitarian aid since the war and has been rebuilding hospitals in southern Iraq.

Saddam invaded Kuwait 13 years ago this month and occupied it for seven months before a US-led coalition liberated it in the 1991 Gulf War.

Ali, dressed in a white shirt whose short sleeves hung empty, said he wanted to go to a football match in London. Tired of smiling for the cameras, he said: “I am going to charge five dollars a photo.”

Meanwhile, a Canadian doctor is to adopt Ali, it was reported yesterday. Father-of-three Falih Hafuth, a hospital doctor in Cambridge, Ontario, travelled to Kuwait last month to visit Ali.

Raj Chahal, a lawyer helping Hafuth, said Canadian immigration officials indicated Abbas and a relative have been given initial approval to come to Canada after he receives treatment in Britain.

“The tough part of it (immigration) has been dealt with and it’s okay, but it’s subject to final statutory requirements being fulfilled, which should be dealt with shortly while Ali is in England getting his prosthesis,” Mr Chahal added.