Five Year Old Boy Doused in Gas, Set on Fire

[Hannah]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Five-year-old Youssif is scarred for life, his once beautiful smile turned into a grotesquely disfigured face -- the face of a horrifying act by masked men. They grabbed him on a January day outside his central Baghdad home, doused him with gas and set him ablaze.
It's an act incomprehensibly savage, even by Iraq's standards today. No one has been arrested and the motive remains unknown.

In a war-ravaged city torn by sectarian violence and marked by acts of vengeance, this attack's apparent randomness stands out as an example of what life has become in a place where brutality -- even against young children -- is a constant.

"They dumped gasoline, burned me, and ran," Youssif told CNN, pointing down the street with his scarred hands where his attackers fled.
As he sucked his thumb, he repeated, "I was burning." He tried to put the flames out himself.

It looks as though this boy's face melted and then froze into rivers cutting through swollen hard flesh. It's hard to see the energetic outgoing child his parents describe beneath the sullen demeanor that defines Youssif today.
"He's become spiteful, I am not sure why," said his mother, Zainab. "He is jealous of everyone. If I say the slightest thing to him, he cries. He's sensitive."

Even things like eating have become a chore. His face contorts when he tries to shovel rice into his mouth, carefully angling the spoon and then using his fingers to push the little grains through lips he can no longer fully open.

He has also become jealous of the baby sister he used to dote on. "I sit sometimes at night and cry," Zainab said, her voice heavy with guilt. "If only I hadn't let him go outside, if only I hadn't let him play."

It was on January 15 that masked men attacked her boy, their identities still unknown. Zainab said she was upstairs at the time.

"I heard screaming. I thought someone was fighting or something," she said.
She ran downstairs, saw her son and fainted. When she came to, she barely recognized her child. "His head was so swollen, you couldn't see his eyes, and his nose was pushed in."
"There was blood," she added, shuddering slightly. "The skin was melted off."

He spent two months in the hospital recovering from the severe burns. These days Youssif spends most of his time indoors, in front of the computer. It's only then that traces of the 5-year-old in him emerge. "He can't play outside with the other kids," Zainab said. "The other day they were playing, and he came in crying. I asked him, 'What's wrong?' and he said, 'They won't play with me because I am burned.'"

She said he once wanted to be a doctor and he loved kindergarten. "He used to be the one who would wake me up every morning, saying let's go to school," Zainab recalled.

She coaxed him to tell me the few words he knows in English. "Girl, boy, window, fan," he said, his voice barely audible, the words barely intelligible.

Doctors told the family there is little more they can do to help Youssif. The family can't afford care outside Iraq.

So Zainab has taken a massive risk by telling her story to the world. Her husband works as a security guard, and it's too dangerous for him to talk to the media.

"I'd prefer death than seeing my son like this," Zainab said.

All she wants is for someone to help her little boy smile again.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/...boy/index.html

[Revan]

Sick sad world... No matter how bad things get in my life, it's still much better than some people have it. I'm thankful

[Mecha Cow]

F*cked up.

[KROW]

And yet, we're the infidels and the unholy and the horrible monsters of the world. Yeah, okay.

[Sewer Bull]

Originally Posted by KROW

And yet, we're the infidels and the unholy and the horrible monsters of the world. Yeah, okay.

In all honesty, horrible monsters are everywhere, even in the more civilized parts of our planet.

[VaughnMichael]

Originally Posted by KROW

And yet, we're the infidels and the unholy and the horrible monsters of the world. Yeah, okay.

Actully I didn't want to say this but firs tthing that came to my mind was that maybe one of our idiot soldiers did this and thought it would be funny because I know allot of red necks look at other walks of life like they're animals.
But who really cares who did it it's wrong to do something like that especially to a child!

[KROW]

Originally Posted by Sewer Bull

In all honesty, horrible monsters are everywhere, even in the more civilized parts of our planet.

Yeah, but we're being labeled as such by the people who do horrible things like this.

And of course, there's going to be people who say, "Well maybe American soldiers did this." But coming from a country that forcibly removes the clitoris of their wives, I think they're more likely to burn a child than we are.

[Sewer Bull]

Originally Posted by KROW

And of course, there's going to be people who say, "Well maybe American soldiers did this." But coming from a country that forcibly removes the clitoris of their wives, I think they're more likely to burn a child than we are.

Ehrm... The thing you're talking about happens in Sudan and Somalia mostly (and some other African countries as well), not Iraq in particular.

But I think I see your general point.

[Scandia]

Goodness gracious. I'm just plain HORRIFIED. WHO in his or her right mind would do something like that to an innocent person?

Where do I send the money to help? I am about to start crying out of RAGE.

I wonder if this is one of the reasons why I am so terrified of fire. After all, nothing bad involving fire has happened to anyone I know that would justify this fear that I have had as far back as I remember.

[KROW]

Originally Posted by Sewer Bull

Ehrm... The thing you're talking about happens in Sudan and Somalia mostly (and some other African countries as well), not Iraq in particular.

But I think I see your general point.

But it does happen there, so my point is valid.

[Buslady]

good lord poor kid. reminds me of the kid here who was burned by his own father! he's all grown up now and normal, scarred like hell but he's good.
I hope some help can come to this kiddo, if i had the dough I'd ship them over here and get him help.