The number of Iraqi's killed is often disputed but the doctors of Iraq know only too well the true cost of the war. Here, an Iraqi doctor writes a diary of his week in the 'hot' hospital of Tallafar

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Wednesday, 26 October 2005

I woke up at 9:00 AM, it was a noisy night, choppers are always circling the air; far-away explosions disturbed my sleep.

After a shower and breakfast I went down to the streets there where only a few cars because of the high gas prices, the taxi charged me three times the usual fee, after one hour I was at the outer checkpoint of Tallafar - where there were two American Bradley tanks and some Iraqi forces checking the cars for bombs and weapons.

I had to walk about half an hour before finding any taxi that can take me to the hospital then I had to walk for about ten minutes before reaching the hospital which was full of the Iraqi national guards and surrounded by razor wire fence and concrete blocks. There were two American larger Abrahms tanks at the yard in the front of the hospital.

Inside everything was quiet, only a few people came to the hospital while about 25% of the staff was actually working. Before this time the hospital was a large one about 1000 employee working in it, now people would die in their houses rather than to come to the hospital. At night no-one even comes near the hospital, because the soldiers would shoot anyone or anything moving.


Relatives of a wounded man watch through a window as he is tended to by a doctor at Yarmouk hospital after a bombing attack in central Baghdad October 4, 2004. Two bomb blasts shook separate areas of central Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 70, while U.S. and Iraqi forces pursued their offensive against rebel strongholds elsewhere in the country

Thursday, 27th October, 2005

This morning there was only a little water left in the hospital's water reserve. I washed and dressed up as I am the senior house officer in the surgery - but I had to sit in the surgical consultancy because, like the other employees, the senior doctor did not come to work.

Only a few people came, those who dared to get out of their homes. Many of them were wounded and came asking for treatment, luckily we had some drugs supplied by the Iraqi Turkuman front, but any seriously injured patient or any serious cases medical or surgical will have to be transferred to Mosul by ambulance.

This must occur during the day time because at night it is impossible as the American troops would open fire on anything moving. Many accidents have happened in which ambulance were fired upon even after they were identified by the U.S. Army as being totally civilian vehicles.

As we were in Ramadhan we had our fast breaking meal after the sunset. At night we can hear scattered firing and explosions but we didn’t know what they were all about. I had a rough night trying to sleep again, it was even worse than in Mosul.

Friday, 28th October, 2005

Although today is a holiday, there was nothing different about it. At noon we couldn’t go to the mosque to do the Friday prayer because most of the mosques were either closed or have been ruined after being bombed. You can see the marks of the bullets on the walls and on many houses too.

At noon there was a case of burn victim that came in. She was a middle age female teacher, her face was completely burned as well as her upper body. Her father was also admitted with burns but much less. From his crying and scattered words, I understood that his daughter had tried to commit suicide by trying to burn herself.

I didn’t dare to ask about the story behind this tragedy. We did what we could and then sent her to Mosul hoping that she make it through in one piece.


A U.S. soldier hands out chewing gum to children during a patrol in Tallafar October 25, 2005. The death of an army sergeant pushed the U.S. military death toll in Iraq to the landmark figure of 2,000 on Tuesday, but President George W. Bush warned more sacrifices were needed before U.S. troops could come home.

Saturday, 29th October, 2005

At about noon U.S. soldiers came to the hospital, they said that they had found bodies piled up in a small valley South of Tallafar and they wanted to take the ambulance to bring these corpses to the hospital.

We tried to explain to them that we were a medical staff and not forensic, and that using the ambulance is not sanitary. At last they were convinced to take a truck instead and they brought twelve body bags back to the hospital.

The corpses where decomposing and from my little experience, I can tell that at least a month had passed before these corpses were found. Some of them were young and some were old, all of them were males. They appear to be local men from Tallafar, some their hands were tied behind their backs in what appeared to be an execution, there was no ID on any of them.

At night while we were watching TV at about 10pm we heard a very close shot, after which we found a man crying in pain who we rushed to the casualty unit. He appeared to be one of the Iraqi National Guard’s that were protecting the hospital and had shot himself in the left big toe.

My colleague doctor told me that this wasn’t the first incident of this kind, soldiers would shoot themselves in order to have few days of vacation and go home - or maybe it was the hysterical atmosphere they were living in

Personally I don’t blame them.


An Iraqi soldier watches a doctor treat a wounded comrade after a gunfight with insurgents in Baghdad September 17, 2005. Police said three soldiers were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a convoy of Iraqi commandos on Saturday in Baghdad's southern al-Sayidia neighborhood.

Sunday, 30th October, 2005

A team of U.S. army forensic experts came to the hospital to examine the corpses. They took many pictures, and put at tag on each of the corpses. They told me that there were more bodies where they found them and that they will bring them to the hospital and asked me if we had a connection with the forensic department in Mosul.

I told them that I will speak to the medical director of the hospital about this, while I was thinking with myself that no-one will come from Mosul because no-one is ready to risk his life as Tallafar is a hot zone. In spite of the last campaign Tallafar is still not completely under the government control.

Monday, 31 October, 2005

At about 1pm a woman was brought to the casualty unit, she was dead and her son was sitting next to her crying.

I examined her and found she was shot at close range by a rifle in the chest and the head, the nurses told me that she was an ex-employee in the hospital kitchen, but they didn’t know why she was killed.

Her son said that two men wearing masks shot his mother while she was standing in the front of their house and escaped and of course no-one followed them. The police forces were hiding in their heavily guarded stations and they even didn’t even bother to come to the hospital.

Tuesday, 1 November, 2005

At 2pm a U.S. Army Lieutenant came to the hospital and told me that they had dug out three more corpses from the site. I asked him for help to send these corpses to the forensic department in Mosul, he was very co-operative and I thanked him for that since we didn’t get any help from our government.


A man carries a girl to a hospital after she was injured by a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad, November 4, 2005. The bomb exploded in a southern Baghdad suburb killing two children and an adult

Wednesday, 2 November, 2005

At about 7pm we heard heavy firing, half an hour later the Iraqi army brought a whole family into the hosptial. There was a father and mother in their middle age and a teenage boy - all of them were killed by being shot at close range, mostly in the chest and the head.

This was at evening of Eid and they were killed while they were having their fast breaking meal. Only one survivor was left, their eight year old gir.

She was in state of shock, and who would blame her after seeing her family being massacred in the front of her eyes?

She was also wounded in both her legs, we treated her wounds but who will treat her heart wounds?

Thursday, 3 November, 2005

I went to see that little girl first thing in the morning, I couldn’t sleep well at night thinking of her.

The poor child was crying all night long, we told her that her mother had an operation and that she was in recovery, we didn’t dare to tell her that all of her family was killed.

She refused to eat, I treated her wounds myself, but failed to make the eat anything. At night I was compelled to give her valium to make the sleep.

At noontime the same lieutenant came by and told me that they had dug up three more bodies. The sum is now eighteen corpses and he confirmed that they will take them to Mosul on Saturday, I thanked him again.

Friday, 4 November, 2005

Today my shift will end and I will go back home to see my folks, but before that I went to see the little girl first, no-one came to see her. I don’t know why, may be they were afraid or threatened by someone.

She was still shocked, but she managed to say that two men wearing masks hiding their faces broke into their house and started shooting. She still didn’t eat anything yet and my efforts went in vain trying to make her, I gave her my pajamas since her clothes were all taken off and no one from her relatives came by.