Displacement has taken heavy toll on Iraqi families - Iraq/Terrorism/Refugees
17/3/08
The killers were on the way, and Ahmad Hassan had only a few hours to save his family. On this day, August 6, 2006, at least 22 Iraqis would die in rising sectarian violence. Hassan, his wife and their children would survive, but at a cost: They would lose their home, and flee their neighbourhood. Nineteen months later, they remain exiled in their own country. “I do not want to return to my house for the time being because I already lost my house and I do not want to lose my life,” Hassan says, his infant twins in his arms. More than 4 million Iraqi lives are in similar straits - upended by five years of war that has turned neighbourhoods into killing fields and sent countless refugee convoys scurrying for the border.