Wounded

Farah Nosh

Getty Images / TIME Magazine / The New York Times

Razak Rashed Abbas (age 54, b.1952) at home with his son and granddaughter in the Adhamiya district of Baghdad. Injured on October 27, 2003 by a suicide bomber, resulting in a left leg amputation. “I have been an Iraqi police officer for 32 years. It was the start of Ramadan. I went from home to work, at the police station in Khithra district. Everyday, we rotate duties at the station. My duties that day were the main gates. It was around 9:30 am. A green Land Cruise broke through the barricade, a man wearing military clothes was driving. I watched him as he opened the door and got out. He was tall and young, maybe 25. He looked at the station and I was there at the station entrance, the closest to him, then immediately there was a blast and I fell. My leg was dismembered immediately. I was lying on my back and just wanted somebody to finish me off. I was holding my stomach, it was hanging out, I just tried to hold it all in. A friend came over and put me in the back of his truck. They picked up my leg and put it in the truck with me. I was taken into surgery and after that I don’t know anymore. They focused the surgery on my stomach. Is there a day that I don’t remember this? It has been 3 years and I remember it as though it happened today. There was one killed and a lot of injuries. I was the worse injury. The others are fine now and have returned to work. There were four attacks on police stations that day, all in the same day. And this is what Allah has written for me. I was given a thousand dollars compensation, as a gift. Now, I receive 197,000 Iraqi Dinars a month as my salary. This is the salary for those who are too injured to return for duty. If I were still working, my wage would be 600,000 Dinars. I have 6 children, 2 girls and 4 boys.”

Farah Nosh, "Wounded," in POYi Archive, Item #46171, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/46171 (accessed November 21, 2024).