Seven lives after the battlefield

His wife, Zainab Abdulkarim, says colleagues told the family of his injury. Omar had diabetes before the blast; his health deteriorated in the following years and his kidneys failed. The reviewed records do not establish that the blast caused the kidney failure.

He moved among hospitals, including facilities affiliated with religious shrines that provided free care. Zainab says referrals did not provide continuing treatment or reliable income. He later became bedridden. After his death, she says she could not afford rent and moved with their children to relatives.

View treatment referral and coverage approval ↗. The investigation also reviewed three IDs indicating his affiliation with the war media team.

Hussein says Baladi TV offered limited initial care and sent him to Iran for a consultation about a year later, without the surgery he says he needed. He reports continuing mobility problems. He also says doctors raised a possible link between tear-gas exposure and later liver cirrhosis; the investigation did not review an independent medical report confirming that link.

Following the channel’s closure, he says he received no compensation or help with his claim. He describes the Journalists’ Union’s wounded department as ineffective and disputes the Martyrs’ Foundation’s classification of his injury. His account of a killed colleague’s family is presented as testimony, not an independently established institutional finding.

Evidence described: battlefield photograph, X-ray, and medical report.

Ali joined Al-Furat in 2005. He says a manager called him back from vacation to cover the fighting. During the battle for central Tikrit, a suicide bomber detonated inside a house; Ali estimates that more than 2,000 shrapnel fragments struck him. After about five months of initial treatment, he returned to field work.

He says a Telegram message later ended his employment, without injury compensation. The documents he submitted describe prolonged appeals to government agencies. He says neither the government nor the Journalists’ Syndicate has compensated him.

Evidence described: pre-injury coverage photo and official disability document. The card uses a photograph taken during coverage; the separate injury photograph is not displayed here.

Ahmed says the final blast injured his brain, face, leg, abdomen, and kidneys. He describes memory loss, stuttering, and speech difficulties under stress. He says Popular Mobilization Forces affiliates arranged treatment in Iran, while the channel’s follow-up faded. He later joined the PMF and left journalism.

Al-Ghadir TV’s response: Ahmed joined as a volunteer, was injured while working with its teams, received medical expenses from the channel, and returned to work; it says volunteer employment later ended to comply with rules against dual employment. Ahmed’s response: he was a salaried correspondent, and the PMF funded the surgery after his pay stopped. He supplied a channel-branded correspondent pass and a broadcast screenshot identifying him as its correspondent.

He says he now pays for continuing treatment himself and received only one honor from the syndicate. Sensitive image View injury photograph ↗

Murtaza covered the war from 2014 to 2017. He says shrapnel caused severe bowel and rectal damage and that he still needs surgery. He says salary continued temporarily before ending because of budget cuts.

Al-Ghadir TV’s response: he was a volunteer, left for Al-Wala’ without informing the channel, and the injury in question happened after that move; it says it monitored his condition while official and religious bodies paid for treatment. Murtaza’s response: he worked on its team for nearly two years and sustained three injuries with it, on June 30, 2014, January 23, 2015, and April 5, 2015. He names colleagues killed in the latter incidents and cites a courage-award nomination by the channel. These remain competing accounts of the timeline.

He says the Journalists’ Syndicate honored him once in 2014 but never delivered the promised membership card. The card displays the supplied treatment photograph; other sensitive surgical images are omitted.

Mitham says the chest injury required removal of part of his chest and caused persistent complications. A July 14, 2014 Al-Hurra report states that its team was injured and identifies “Mitham” as having serious chest and back injuries.

Al-Hurra’s legal counsel: initially denied he worked there and requested evidence. The investigator provided the published video and a redacted contract. Counsel then said the video did not prove journalistic employment, argued there was no legal obligation to cover medical care for an injury more than ten years old, and declined to comment on the contract. The existence and terms of any duty to provide care are not adjudicated by this card.

The card displays the supplied television still documenting the aftermath of his injury.

Hussein covered security events and battles before 2014 and later reported from Fallujah, al-Qayyarah, and the right bank of Mosul. He says time spent with troops also disrupted his university studies. According to his account, the channel’s technical director later sent a text message permanently ending his employment.

The supplied account does not state the dates or clinical details of his injuries, or identify a response from the channel.