Children slowly drift into death in scenes of hospital horror

TWO-YEAR-OLD Nawaf Mishal lies whimpering on a pile of dirty blankets in an Iraqi hospital, so malnourished his face is deformed, his legs are like pencils and his enormous almond eyes empty with pain.

He vomits all he eats and a 10-day course of antibiotics and fluids at the children's hospital in Samawa, 170 miles south of Baghdad, has not helped.

Nawaf fell ill when the village drinking water became infused with sewage. No one in his family thought to boil the water first. Doctors at the hospital say the number of cases of severe gastroenteritis caused by contaminated water have doubled since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.