An Iraqi doctor has told Sky News the number of babies born with
deformities in the heavily-bombed area of Fallujah is still on the
increase.










Tiba pictured after she had her growth removed by doctors in Jordan




Fifteen months ago a Sky News investigation revealed growing numbers of
children being born with defects in Fallujah.


Concerns were that the rise in deformities may have been linked to the use of
chemical weapons by US forces.


We recently returned to find out the current situation and what has happened to
some of the children we featured.


In May last year we told the story of a three-year-old girl called Fatima Ahmed
who was born with two heads.


When we filmed her she seemed like a listless bundle - she lay there barely able
to breathe and unable to move.


Even now and having seen the pictures many times since I still feel shocked and
saddened when I look at her.


But the prognosis for Fatima never looked good and, as feared, she never made it
to her fourth birthday.


Her mother Shukriya told us about the night her daughter died.











Fatima died after our first report






Wiping away her tears, Shukriya said she had put her daughter to bed
as normal one night but woke with the dreadful sense that something was
wrong.


She told us she felt it was her daughter's moment to die, but of course that
does not make the pain any easier.


Fatima's father had taken his little girl's hand but it was cold.


"She is gone," he had said to his distraught wife.


Another girl we met last year was Tiba Aftan who was born with a huge growth
across her face.


Now she is a toddler her future is looking brighter having gone to neighbouring
Jordan to have it removed.


The growth had covered half of Tiba's forehead and was invading one of her eyes
- and it was getting bigger as she got older.


Although the operation was a success Tiba will need more surgery and the last
trip cost her family almost every penny they have.


But since our original investigation, we have built up a new dossier
of cases of deformed children in Fallujah born in the last eight months.


There are a wide range of problems - from abnormalities of the abdomen to facial
disfigurements.


We have also seen pictures of all kinds of deformed foetuses which have not
survived.











Fallujah was heavily bombed in 2004






There is no precise explanation as to what has caused the
deformities and there are no figures to compare cases with those a
decade or more ago as records were not kept during the time of Saddam
Hussein.


All of our evidence is anecdotal, but repeatedly people tell us they
believe the deformities must be linked to the heavy bombardment of
Fallujah - a Sunni insurgent stronghold - by America in 2004.


People want an independent investigation into the impact of the
kinds of weapons used - including controversial white phosphorus.


Yet even since we first started to give a voice to the calls for help from the
people of Fallujah things seem to have got worse.


Dr Ahmed Uraibi, a specialist paediatrician in Fallujah, told us
that the number of deformities he has dealt with has increased in the
last year.


The people of Fallujah want to know how many more deformed babies there will be
before someone sits up and takes notice of them.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Sky-News-Returns-To-Fallujah-Lisa-Ho\
lland-Revisits-The-Children-Born-With-Deformities/Article/200908415371946?f=rss

P.S.  The article doesn't mention depleted uranium as the cause of these
deformities, but I suspect that it may be a factor.  Hajja Romi






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