Iraq Refuge

Andrea Bruce

The Washington Post

On the last day he could run, Omar was playing soccer. He and five friends were resting outside his home on the southern outskirts of Baghdad on Sept. 20, 2007, when the mortar shell fell. The explosion killed one of his playmates and shattered both of Omar's legs. In early January, nine-year-old Omar and his father arrived in Amman, Jordan, where Doctors without Borders treated an infection in the stump of his left leg, multiple fractures in his right leg and shrapnel embedded in both.

Andrea Bruce, "Iraq Refuge," in POYi Archive, Item #42919, http://archive.poy.org/index.php/items/show/42919 (accessed June 12, 2025).