Wounded Iraqis Left Broken and Burdened

Attacks targeting civilians have increased more than fourfold in the past month, Iraqi Defense Minister Sadoun Dulaimi said at a news conference last week. U.S. and Iraqi officials have argued that the increase, and a decrease in attacks on so-called hard targets such as security forces, show that the insurgency is weakening.

"When the terrorists lost their ability to target Iraqi and coalition forces, they headed toward civilians," Dulaimi said. "This indicates their weakness and says they are losing."

Almost two years after being struck by the warning shot, Habib is still waiting for a prosthetic limb. He got one two months ago, he said, but returned it because the knee joint did not bend properly.

For many months after the shooting, which took place near the city of Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, his family asked the U.S. military for financial help but was rejected several times, Ghassan Habib said. The military here pays restitution to the families of those deemed mistakenly killed or wounded by U.S. forces.

Letters that Raez Habib carries from service members familiar with his case shed light on his story. (None includes a unit designation, but the military's press office in Baghdad said the Army's 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Hood, Tex., was responsible for Diyala province, where Balad is located, during the summer of 2003.) Habib spent almost a week in the Army's 21st Combat Support Hospital in Balad, according to a note signed by Maj. Beverly Beavers, the hospital's operations chief.

He was eventually transferred to an Iraqi hospital in town, Capt. Dillard W. Young wrote on July 13, 2003, adding that Habib needed "help with his medical payments."

Two other notes discuss the difficulty his family had in getting money from the military. An undated note signed by Lt. John M. Noga and addressed to "Claims office personnel" says, "I can't get a clear answer as to why this claim was kicked back."

"We want to know the reason for not paying this claim," Staff Sgt. Joseph Messenger wrote on Feb. 21, 2004, about eight months after Habib was shot.

Last March, the military paid Habib $1,000 in restitution, his brother said, but that money has been spent.

He and his wife and their three children are among 18 family members who share a three-room house in Balad Ruz, about 50 miles southeast of Balad. A visit there revealed it had just one bathroom; a single light bulb dangled in each room.

After Habib was injured, his two brothers left school to get jobs, and his mother, Majdiya Abbas, started baking and selling bread for extra money to feed her family. She will also pay the $100 for his new prosthetic and his cab fare to Baghdad to pick it up, Habib said.

"We have to play his role as a father. That's our job now, my job and his wife's," said Majdiya Abbas, 61. "He was our provider. He cannot be useful to us or to the world anymore."

Special correspondents Bassam Sebti in Baghdad and Falah Hasan in Balad Ruz contributed to this report.