Samar Hussein

Samar Hussein (13) was killed in March when a missile struck her parents farm in Manaria, roughly 30 miles from Baghdad. She was in the kitchen when the missile landed and the explosion was close enough for shrapnel to cut through the house's stone walls and slice into Samar's stomach. Samar's mother Hamida told the Independent 'She just fell. I could see blood coming from her stomach. She was gasping, 'Mama, Mama' ... It was so terrible. There were others hurt, and everyone was crying and screaming. We had to wait for a car because ours was so badly damaged. But I knew my Samar would not last until we got to the hospital. And that is what happened - she died in my arms.'

'Samar's formal education had ended earlier this year, when she had been taken out of school to help with the farm. But she loved reading, and wrote the family's letters for them,' Kim Sengupta reports, Guardian 4 April 2003.

"She made me promise her that when we could afford it she would go back to school,' her father Jasem said. "Maybe it would have been possible, but now that is all gone. I do not know why they did this, I do not understand."

Saman Hassan Hamid, 29

Saman, a son of a civil servant in the northern Iraqi town of Kifri, had earned a living smuggling petrol into the nearby Kurdish controlled enclave as the war broke out. He is remembered as a polite and generous man who helped three families flee the conflict in his own car.

Saman died as a result of Iraqi shelling of Kifri in retaliation for an American attack the previous evening. He had been walking through the town to help evacuate his grandmother who lived near the frontline.

Safia Abbas, aged 5

Safia, the youngest daughter of Saad and Sindous Abbas, lived with her three sisters and two brothers in Awa, a poor, mostly Shia suburb of Baghdad.

Safia was killed when an American missile hit the floor where the four Abbas sisters were sleeping. Two of Safia’s sisters, Tabarek aged eight and Marwa aged eleven, also died in the attack.

Reham Al-Farra, aged 29

Reham Al-Farra (29) was the first female daily political columnist writing for Al Arab Al Yawm, a prominent newspaper in Amman. She was also active at the Centre for Defending the Freedom of Journalists. In 2002 she joined the UN where she worked for the Department of Public Information. Earlier this year she travelled to Baghdad to take up temporary duties in the Office of the Spokesman for the Special Representative. She died in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad on the 19th August

Mahmood Nasib Said, aged 50

Mahmood had lived with his extended family in the Baghdad suburb of Adhmiya, where he had retired in 1996 due to illness. He was remembered as a well read and devout man who was especially affectionate to children following the early death of his daughter in 1991.

Mahmood was shot dead by US troops in his own bedroom when they raided his house, “looking for Saddam Hussein.”

Abas Khalid Hussein, aged 2

Abas was one of the many children of Khalid, a policeman, and Fawziya, a Shia couple in the Baghdad district of Bayaa. He was a playful child who had just begun to walk and speak. Khalid had hoped Abas would grow up to be a doctor.

Abas was killed when shots from a US armoured vehicle penetrated the family home during a confrontation with Iraqi troops and fedayeen.

Amaar Al-Huda Saad, aged 3

Amaar lived in a large family house in Basra, the son of a consultant gynaecologist and a chemistry teacher. He was a particularly charming and mischievous child who was always the centre of attention, adept at shifting the blame for the chaos he created in the house onto his siblings.

Amaar suffocated under the rubble of his grandparent’s house, which collapsed when it was hit by a coalition missile.

Ihab Hamoodi, aged 32

Only three months before the outbreak of war Ihab had finally completed her long training to be a consultant gynaecologist at Basra teaching hospital, one of the best in Iraq. The previous year she had married and bought a house and car with her husband. Ihab had recently given birth to her fist child, Noor Al-Huda.

Ihab died along with nine other members of her family, including her daughter, when a coalition missile struck her parent’s house in Basra.

Moustafa Akram Hamoodi, aged 13

Moustafa was a likely, confident boy born into a large family from Basra, remembered as a perfectionist in his study and religion. His family joked that he would sulk if he got 99 out of 100 as he always wanted to be the best at everything.

Moustafa died along with his brother Zain and sisters Ihab and Zina when a coalition missile struck their family home.

Zina Akram Hamoodi, aged 12

Zina, from a large middle class family in Basra, was the beauty of her family. Her grandfather remembers her as very glamorous and, like her siblings, academically competitive.

Zina was killed by a missile attack on her grandparents home along with her brother Moustafa and her sister Ihab.

Mohammed Al- Kubaisa, aged 12

At 10:30 p.m. on a sweltering night in late June 12-year-old Mohammed Al-Kubaisa climbed the concrete steps leading to the roof of his family's house. The boy held two blankets, so he and his identical twin brother, Moustafa, could curl up together for the night, one of their favorite summer habits. He had just reached the top, when he turned to watch the military maneuvers on the street below: American soldiers patrolling with rifles.

One soldier looked up in the darkness and saw a figure on the roof, watching him. A single shot exploded into the air, slamming into Mohammed's chest. He could have been saved that tragic night, had it not been for the unyielding soldiers at a checkpoint in the Hay Al-Jihad district of south Baghdad. "I tried to rush him to the hospital in my car," said a neighbor, Yaser Ala, 17. "They stopped us at the checkpoint because it was nearly curfew time. They said we could not go on, even though they saw Mohammed bleeding."

Ala drove back to the house, where Mohammed bled to death in the car. Young Mohammed's twin brother, Moustafa, a shy boy, said "I don't want to be at home. There is no one to play with anymore."

Thama Nema Sarhan

Hakima Mohammed, with a photograph of her son Thama Nema Sarhan, a senior officer in the Iraqi regular forces who was killed during a Coalition bombing raid near Kirkuk.

Lori Piestewa, aged 23

US Army Private 1st Class Lori Piestewa (23) was a single mother of two children - Brandon (4) and Carla (3) - and member of the Hopi tribe. She died when her convoy was ambushed outside Nasiriyah on March 23rd. She is believed to be the first Native American woman killed in combat in a foreign war.

According to the Arizona Republic (10 April 2003):

'The essential thing to understand about Lori Piestewa is that she grew up in a poor, isolated community where dreams often swirl just out of reach like the fine red dust
dancing across her homeland.

'Under different circumstances, this shy, 23-year-old Army private from Tuba City, the one whose "cute" laugh everyone remembered, might not have had to leave one ancient desert to die in another half a world away .

Piestewa found herself in Iraq with the 507th Maintenance Company because the poverty, the lack of opportunity, the sheer boredom of life in Tuba City left her few other options when it came to feeding her ambitions and her children.'

Mohammed Tahab

Mohammed Tahab, aged 30, lived in the Rashid quarter of Baghdad’s Old City, an impoverished part of the city. He was with a group of other men when they came into conflict with an American patrol. He was shot in the face and neck and another man was shot in the abdomen. Members of the group said that they were not warned before the shooting started.

Mazen Dana

Mazen Dana (43) was a cameraman for Reuters. For seven years he covered one of the most dangerous beats in the world: his hometown Hebron in the Occupied West Bank and in 2001 was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Dana was shot dead by US soldiers outside Abu Ghraib prison on August 17th. Stephan Breitner, of France 2 television, told the Guardian: "We were all there for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don't think it was an accident. They are very tense. They are crazy."

Mazen Dana is survived by his wife, Suzana and four children.