19 by Coalition air strike in Al-Ishaqi, south of Tikrit

I used to live in Al-Adhamiya – Al Thoubat Street near Al-Assaf Mosque. My house was very close to Iraqi Intelligence’s important building in Al Kadhmiya (Al-Shouba Al-Khamsa) which was basically across the river from where we lived. This building was hit with an air strike around noon. On that day I was with the rest of my family in my home. We were all sitting in one room because the air strikes were intense that day. We could hear the missiles flying very close above our house. We also could see the flames of these missiles’ engines. Because of that, my daughter Lina had a nervous breakdown as she was very frightened by how close the airstrikes and the missiles were.

She began to jump to her feet, screaming. To protect her, I leapt over to where she and her mother were and covered them with my body. After the air strikes ceased, Lina was strangely quiet, just crying to herself. She said she doesn’t want to stay here in “Baghdad” anymore. We tried to talk her out of this and calm her down but she refused. She continued crying for the whole day non stop. I needed to figure something out.

I was a fruit and vegetables wholesaler in Jamila. My cousin, who at that time was already staying in the farm, came over to Jamila to buy some provisions for the farm (water and food, etc.). As we talked I mentioned my daughter’s situation and he suggested that we come over to the farm with him. I refused initially but then after discussing this this with my wife, we decided to go. The next day we went to the farm. I didn’t know where the farm was exactly, so I agreed, with my cousin, to meet them by one of the roadside restaurant stops by the main road, where we would follow his car to the farm’s location.

When we arrived there, we were met by Khalid (the son of the farm owner) and my cousin’s two sons. We followed them in the car and were taken to the farm. The first five days, things were very quiet. We could only hear bombing sounds from very far away. When I asked why is that, they said because Balad Base is close by. I voiced my concern if this was very close and if we were to be mistaken for the base, I was told not to worry, it’s not that close.

On the day of the incident, we had dinner, Hajji Abbas (the farm owner) was playing table games and then he went to sleep in his room. His room was close to the main house. The buildings in the farm consisted of a male guesthouse, a female guest house across the garden and the farm owner’s house. The male guest house was around 15 metres from the farm owner’s house and female guest house.

I used to smoke at the time. In the night time I wanted to get some cigarettes out of my car because I didn’t want to do that in the morning. I went to my car, which was lined up along with the many other cars of the people staying in the farm. I have a suspicion that we were hit because of the many cars in the farm. I went to my car; I opened the boot and took one packet of cigarettes and I was thinking to myself if I should take one or more because I don’t want to make that trip to the car again. This was around midnight. I walked to the male guest house and entered it from the kitchen door. As I was walking from the kitchen to the guest room (where everyone sleeps), I heard the sound of the missile passing and an impact. The windows shattered and the glass blew in on us.

Shortly afterwards the second missile hit. In the first moment of the impact, we were all in shock, the first thing I recall that Ali Bashar was in the toilet and he came out screaming “MY DAD, MY DAD”. His dad came to him, hugged him and took him outside. Outside, I saw my cousin when I asked what has happened, he said “THEY ARE ALL GONE, THEY ARE ALL GONE” when I asked him where are the women, he said “THEY ARE ALL GONE, THEY ARE DEAD”.

It was really dark because we were in a village. As I walked I fell into a hole, which was muddy. I was screaming, “Lina, Mohammed, Mwafaq”. As I tried to get out of the hole I kept slipping and fell back because of the mud. After a few tries I managed to get out, still shouting my family’s name “Lina, Mohammed, Mwafaq, Rusul.” After a few times, I heard my son Mwafaq calling me. I shouted where are you, he said he doesn’t know but he thinks that I am close to him. I asked him to keep talking and I followed the voice until I realised that he is in the hole and I am above. As people where trying to rescue him, they didn’t realise that his leg was stuck in a window as a result of the explosion. They kept pulling him until his leg broke. As they took him out, a nearby mosque’s clerk put my son in his car.

Shortly afterwards, my cousin who was searching with his torch light saw a head and fingertips above the rubble while the rest of the body was buried under the soil. I came closer and realised that this was my wife. Very close to her fell a very large and sharp rock that fell 1 centimetre away from her back. I was calling to her but she was not responding. I shook her while doing this and then I heard a snort from her, so I knew she was alive. We took her out of the rubble and she was put in the mosque clerk’s car and he drove them both to the hospital. I kept looking for Mohammed and Lina and couldn’t find them. I saw victims being pulled out, I saw Khalid, Hajji Abbas and his wife, I found the body of Ali’s mother hanging in the tree and brought her down, and they found the bodies of my cousin’s wife and his daughter. I heard that my wife’s auntie was alive when she was pulled from the rubbles but then died on the way to hospital or there. After a while searching it was Fajr prayer time and we didn’t want the kids who survived to see the scene of the bodies, so we took them to a nearby mosque where people from the area took care of them.

We went back to the farm, the officer of the area police station brought vehicles that helped carry the wounded to the hospital and the dead to the morgue. We made our Fajir prayer in the mosque. The officer then took us to his house, which was a good driving distance from the farm. In his house, the officer came to me and asked if was Wail, and when I said yes, he said your wife and son Mwafaq want you. When I asked him about Mohammed and Lina, he didn’t give me an answer. He took me to the hospital, this was around dawn. I entered the ward and I couldn’t recognise my wife. Her face was very swollen and was purple all over. She called me, and I did recognise her. Mwafaq was next to her but he was scared of how his mom looked so they (hospital staff) took him away from her. At this point I came to the realisation that Mohammed and Lina died because no one found them. She asked me where is Mohammed and Lina and I lied and said the kids are with other people and they are fine. I didn’t want to tell her. I went to Mwafaq and he was in shock.

He was silent, and when I asked him how he was, how his leg is, he said it was painful. At that point in the hospital I asked the officer, what about Lina and Mohammed and he said I am sorry for your loss. I had to control my reaction in front of my wife. I held it till I went outside and at that point I broke down. The police officer came outside to show his condolences and support. He then took me to the police station to take my statement about the incident and at that point he said that had not yet found my son and daughter. This was around 9 AM in the morning. We later went back to the farm. I saw Samira’s husband in the farm who told me that they found the bodies of Lina and Mohammed buried in the rubble and had sent them to the hospital.

After all this we realised what happened that night. The result of the missiles was a big hole 15 metres wide and 7 deep. The first missile, destroyed the house and the second missile resulted in victims being buried in rubble. We found Ali’s Bashar’s mother on the tree. Mayasa’s body was found stuck in the wall, Mohammed (Ali Bashar’s brother) they found in the farm, a distance from the place of the explosion.

The death of my children has changed my life 180 degrees towards the worse psychologically and physically and financially. Psychologically: for almost two years my wife was in shock, subdued and unresponsive to anything, present in body but absent in mind. My wife’s sisters took care of my Mwafaq as he grow up as his mother couldn’t. My wife got a little better at the birth of our second daughter (Leen). We all felt the difference of having a new member in our family but we can never forget Mohammed and Lina.

As told by Wail Mwafaq Mosa Tabra to IBC, 4th July 2021