Yakim Abdula

This is Yakim Abdula. She's two years old. The man holding her in the first two frames of the image is her father Hassan. They live in Karrada, which as I've said before is a fairly upmarket part of Baghdad with relatively good security. It's controlled by SCIRI whose leader suggested the other day that each neighbourhood form its own protection squads. SCIRI of course is the party that control the Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense are known to be particularly heavily infiltrated with death squads. Like all of Baghdad Karrada's coming under increasing attack. This mornings attacks were a combined and coordinated series of; rocket attacks, followed by a mortar barrage, followed by car bombing. Casualties were very heavy at least 35 people were killed at least 153 were wounded badly enough to need hospitalisation. Amongst the casualties were Yakim's two brothers killed when a rocket hit their apartment. In the third frame of the image. Yakim is being held by her uncle. Hassan has left to go into their apartment to retrieve her two brother's dead bodies. markfromireland