When medicine is another casualty of war

Andra Jackson

Salam Ismael was head of junior doctors in Baghdad when America began bombing Iraq in March 2003. Dr Ismael has undertaken missions to the most remote and besieged areas to get medical help to the injured or dying. He says doctors are being stopped by American troops and Iraqi police and soldiers from entering conflict zones to treat the wounded, and six were recently detained in al-Qaim city for treating insurgents (...) Ismael says fighting powers in combat zones have a Geneva Convention obligation to respect and protect medical personnel, units and logistics. Illegal weapons are causing some of the injuries medics have seen, he says...

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