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Youngsters maimed by discarded bombs face dark futures in Iraq
It was just five years ago that Murtaja Hussein was playing football next to his house, in a farming village south of Baghdad, when he found the lump of metal that would change his life forever.
It was only after he picked it up, and after it had blown off both of his hands and one side of his face, that Murtaja, then 11, realised he had found a discarded bomb.
Now aged 16, he still cries himself to sleep at night and prays he will die quickly so that his suffering, and the suffering of his family, will end.
"I've not been able to come to terms with what has happened to me," he told The National at his home in a rural area of northern Babil province. "I lost my life when I was young and I've been stuck ever since, I know I'm a heavy burden on my family and that makes this existence unbearable."
There are no official figures for the number of Iraqis seriously injured or maimed since the 2003 US-led invasion, either directly from fighting or from discarded munitions, but it is clear that the numbers are significant and have swamped the war-torn country's ability to provide proper treatment and rehabilitation.