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Seven-year-old Iraqi boy was born with an extremely rare condition where his conjoined twin didn't fully form and was partially absorbed, resulting in eight additional limbs in Karam.

However, after his father brought him India for a surgery, all of Karam's unnecessary limbs were surgically removed in a three-stage process.

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The operation took place in Noida's Jaypee Hospital and has been termed as the world's first. Currently, there are only five or six such cases known in the world, making the task even trickier for doctors, said Gaurav Rathore, an orthopaedic consultant who was also a part of Karam's surgical team.

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"He was brought to us when he was just two weeks old and his condition was quite unique. Most of the surgeries we performed had not been attempted before," said Dr Rathore.

In the three-stage operation, the doctors first removed Karam's additional limbs protruding from his stomach before correcting a cardiac complication. The final stage removed all of Karam's extra limbs.

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The doctors added that the boy would have to undergo procedures in future to correct other anomalies.

With inputs from AFP

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Excerpt from:
Baby From Iraq Born With Eight Limbs Successfully Goes Under Surgery In Noida - Indiatimes.com

Ireland has pledged 6m in humanitarian support for severe crises in Yemen and Iraq.

Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan and Minister of State Joe McHugh say Ireland will providetwo-thirds of the aid (4m) to the United Nations Humanitarian Pooled Fund in Yemen.

This is in response to the needs of nearly 19 million people there - two-thirds of the population - affected by two years of civil war.

In February this year, the UN appealed for US$2.1bn (1.97bn) to avert famine for 12 million people.

Minister Flanagan said: "The scale of humanitarian need in the world today is unprecedented and with the severe situation in Syria in the world headlines, crises like that in Yemen are in danger of being forgotten.

"The UN has warned that Yemen is on the brink of famine - a famine caused, not by natural disaster or drought, but by conflict.

"It is crucial that the international community works together to alleviate the suffering of the people of Yemen through humanitarian assistance and working to support a peaceful solution to the conflict."

In March 2015, the president of Yemen, Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi, was forced to flee the country by Houthi rebels.

The Zaidi Shia Houthis were supported by elements of Yemen's military loyal to the country's former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

In response, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of a dozen countries to restore Yemen's internationally recognised government to power.

The European Council on Foreign Relations says: "Two years since the launch of the Saudi-led campaign, peace in the troubled country seems as far off as ever.

"President Hadi and his prime minister, Ahmed Obaid bin Daghir, now govern from the port city of Aden, which they declared the temporary capital."

An additional 2m is being given to the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund in response to the needs of almost 11 million Iraqi people affected by violence linked to ISIL, and the counter-insurgency operation launched by the Iraqi Government.

This pooled fund is managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who will disburse the funding to meet critical humanitarian needs.

Minister of State Joe McHugh said: "Ireland's funding to the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund will provide assistance to people affected by the crisis in Iraq including families and children, who are often the worst affected by conflict.

"Providing funding through Pooled Funds means that the most urgent needs can be met quickly, be they for food, shelter, health or protection for the most vulnerable".

Ireland provided 4.1m in humanitarian funding to the crisis in Yemen in 2016, and gave 2.5m last year to the crisis in Iraq through the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund.

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Ireland announces 6m in humanitarian aid for Yemen and Iraq - Newstalk 106-108 fm

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait Aim for $60 a Barrel Oil Price Wall Street Journal (subscription) Some of OPEC's biggest oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, are now targeting $60 a barrel as the level where they want to push crude prices, OPEC officials said, signaling they will support additional production cuts next month. Saudi Arabia, Iraq ...

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Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait Aim for $60 a Barrel Oil Price - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Since June 2014,when Islamic State attacked northern Iraq,the desks at Mar Ephrem seminary in Hamdaniya, a city 18 milessoutheast of Mosul, have stood empty. Today, they are dusty and rooms once teeming with priests and nuns in training are dark; student ID cards, with titles such asSyrian Catholic: Parish of Bashiqa, Iraq,litter the floor anda statue of the Virgin Mary lies smashed. Now, Isis are gone. But in their wake an eerie quiet remainsand the path of destruction is a visible reminder of their legacy, with thousands ofhouses destroyedin the fierce battle to retake the city lastOctober. And for the Christians who live in Hamdaniya, the question remains: will they ever be able to return to theplace they have called home for thousands of years?

Before Isis came, Hamdaniya (also known asQaraqosh and Bakhdida, the Turkish and Assyrian names for the same place, by locals) was the largest Christian city in Iraq. It formed part of a mosaic of communities stretching across the Nineveh plains to Mount Sinjar near the Syrian border. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis and Christians, and members of smaller local sects such as the Kakai, also lived there. Isis systematically sought to exterminate and cleanse these groups, and when its fighters arrived, the Islamists expelled Christians from Mosul. Those who left were among the lucky ones: in Sinjar, thirty mass graves of Yazidi men and women executed in August 2014 have been found by Kurdish Peshmerga who liberated the areas.Thousands of womensold into slavery by Isis are still missingand around450,000 Yazidisare living in internally displaced persons camps. Yet with Isis gone, the prospect of returning home for many of those forced to flee remains distant.The areas they used to live in Sinjar often lack electricity, schools and hospitals; much-needed international aid is nowhere to be seen. While for many, the continued conflict with Isis on the borders of their region makes life insecure.

Having travelledto Iraq half a dozen times in the last two years, Ive seen how communities are desperatelytrying to reconstruct and move on. The current reality is not reassuring. Across Nineveh plains, the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga have liberated communities but the Isis zealots left behind them a swath of destruction. They tunnelled under houses and through walls during two years of occupation. They blew up holy shrines, and built bomb factories in church buildings, hoping it would hide them from coalition airstrikes. They burned businesses and planted IEDs to kill civilians who return.

For local Christians, the damage is particularly devastating.Near Karemlesh, two ancient holy graves have been left ransacked during the war.In March 2015, Isis blewup a 10thcenturymonastery in Mosul and the 4thcentury MarBahnam monasterysouth of the city.Isis alsodestroyed the 3,300year old ancient city of Nimrud, which was once capital of the Assyrian empire. Their reign in this region was brief, but the damage the Islamists inflicted on precious artefacts of history is permanent.Austen Henry Layard, the 19thBritish century traveller and archaeologist who explored Nimrud in the 1840s wrote that the site was so large there is enough to fill twenty museums. He shipped some artefacts back which form the basis of exhibits at the British Museum. But now, many of the artefacts that were left in place are gone:the archaeology from Nimrud preserved in world museums serves as a reminder of what has been lost forever.

Despite the damage, locals are keen to return but those that do remain in the minority.Some Christians joined a local militia during the war named the Nineveh Plains Protection Units which guards the Christian towns. Maybe 15-20 per cent will come back, most are waiting for immigration, there is no water of electricity here, Anis Khader, a member of the militia told me. In the churches that were burned and ransacked by Isis, the Christians have put up new posters of Jesus, but the desecrations remain and cant be easily disguised. In one church, a wooden cutout of the Virgin Mary has been beheaded. A monument for St. George also had its head cut off, whilecrosses have been prised from the walls.

Matti Rafo, a local Christian born in 1957, says the area has witnessed the worst destruction since the Persian invasion of 1743. At the church of St. George he bent to enter an old mud and brick shrine, uncovering ancient markings of a rare sanctuary that Isis had left untouched. The timelessbuilding had seen assaults in the past and people had returned and rebuilt it. Can todays Iraqis do the same? Or will the churches of Nineveh now fade into history?

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Can Iraq's Christians ever recover from Isis? - Spectator.co.uk (blog)

SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 13, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, conducting 24 strikes consisting of 100 engagements against ISIS targets yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of 21 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Raqqa, seven strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and destroyed a vehicle and a fighting position.

Additionally, officials reported, eight strikes were conducted near Raqqa from April 11 into yesterday that engaged an ISIS staging area, a weapons storage cache and a command-and-control node.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 79 engagements against ISIS targets, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government:

-- Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS fuel truck, a mortar system and a weapons cache.

-- Near Mosul, six strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units and destroyed 11 fighting positions, five vehicles, two vehicle bombs, two vehicle-bomb factories, a medium machine gun, a rocket-propelled-grenade system and a mortar system; damaged 15 ISIS supply routes and a fighting position; and suppressed 10 mortar systems, six fighting positions, two artillery systems and a rocket system.

-- Near Rawah, a strike destroyed six ISIS-held buildings and a vehicle bomb factory.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position, a weapons cache and an ISIS fuel truck.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect. For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

Excerpt from:
Counter-ISIS Strikes Hit Terrorists in Syria, Iraq - Department of Defense