An Iraqi refugee has made a plea to American mothers – please don’t send your sons to Iraq.
Um Sama, a teacher who had to flee her home after death threats, said the current violence sweeping her country was due to the presence of foreign troops.
She was speaking as part of http://news.sky.com/skynews/insideiraq, Sky’s in-depth look at the country four years after the invasion.
Mrs Sama is a Sunni who is married to a Shia man and insists there was no sectarian violence before the 2003 US-led military campaign.
She said her home town had become “just a place for massacres” where at least 10 people were killed every day – their bodies often left where they lay.
She said: “Our area – Mahmudiya, Latifiya and Yousufiya – is called the Triangle of Death. Chaos and killings are widespread so we had to leave when they threatened us.
“Before the war life was so normal. The ties were very strong because Latifiya is a tribal area.
“But after the occupation everything changed. We started to fear things that hadn’t scared us before. We became afraid because anyone might fabricate something against us.”
Mrs Sama said that her marriage had not raised any eyebrows.
She said: “We started a family together and not once did we think about him being a Shia and me being a Sunni or about our neighbour being a Christian or the other one being a Kurd.”
She said she and others were also suffering from rising prices and widespread unemployment.
Asked if she had a message for the American people, she said: “Naturally I send a call to the Americans, especially to the American mothers, to prevent their sons from coming to Iraq.
“Because we have been destroyed. We are wounded and we don’t want those who will cause us further wounds.”
