Ali talks of his pain

The 12-year-old Iraqi boy whose plight touched the world told the Evening Standard today of his pain.

Ali Ismaeel Abbas, who lost both his arms and his parents in the bombing of Baghdad, said from his hospital bed: "I feel like my body is crushing me."

Pictures of Ali prompted the Evening Standard's Victims of War appeal which is raising tens of thousands of pounds for

innocents hurt in Iraq. When told today that aid was being raised to help him and other children like him, he answered: "Good." And he added: "Will the new arms work? Can you eat with them? Can you play with them?"

Ali told the horrific details of how he lost his arms in the bombing. "All I remember of the bombing is that the house came down on us and our neighbours picked me up. Both my hands were badly burned and you could see the bones.

"They were bleeding badly and the doctors could not stop the bleeding, so they cut my arms off."

Ali is in a hospital in one of the poorest, most dangerous districts of Baghdad. Looters run riot outside while Saddam militia refuse to let doctors bury the dead.

He is on the third floor, sharing a room with another child. A cage covers his burnt body to protect it from further injuries. The stumps of his arms are swathed in bandages.

When his photograph was first published by the Evening Standard, prompting an overwhelming response from readers, he was in the Al Kindi children's hospital. But he had to be moved to the Saddam General because it became too dangerous.

Ali lost most of his family when a US missile struck their home in central Baghdad two weeks ago while he was asleep. Ali said all he wanted apart from new prosthetic arms was to see his six sisters, who were injured in the raid.

Majid Mnshed Hashem, one of the assistant doctors treating Ali, said he needed treatment from specialists abroad.

"We don't have experts in prosthetic limbs and we don't have the proper equipment to treat him," said Dr Hashem. "At the moment, we are most worried about the psychological effect this has all had on him. He needs specialist care and an air frame to help his healing, the sort of thing you have in England. He is a very sick boy."

Outside Ali's hospital 20 kilometres from the centre of Baghdad, angry crowds were pleading for help. They were furious that dead relatives are not being buried and were being held back by medical staff in blue uniforms.

A local imam, who gave his name only as Sheikh Ahmed, said: "Fighters from Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon who came to support Saddam have now turned on the people. They are shooting people and using their houses to fire at the Americans. Then they run away and let the people face the American bombs. They are not letting us bury our dead. Please help us."