20 Civilians and 50 Iraqi Soldiers Shot in Northwest Mosul Fighting

7 May 2017

West Mosul, Iraq

Dear friends, 

Please pray for two of our team members, Shaheen, our Yizidi interpreter, and Muhammad, our Iraqi Army friend, who were shot by ISIS on 4 May 2017 in West Mosul.

We were giving first aid to eight wounded Iraqi soldiers when we got a call that ISIS was shooting fleeing civilians. Our Humvee had been shot multiple times on our first medic evacuation earlier that day but it still moved and we drove down, under fire, to where four civilians were shot and lying in the road. As we pulled up, another Humvee came to help us and ISIS intensified their fire. We put the wounded mother and a child in the new Humvee and it left. As we loaded the wounded father and his daughter ISIS shot them again while they were in our arms. We got them into the Humvee and tried to drive out but our vehicle was hit so many times that we lost our transmission and could not move.

Muhammad, an Iraqi solider who had jumped in to drive while our usual driver, Justin, was helping with other patients, jumped out and ran under fire to get another Humvee. I got in the drivers seat and was able to get it to move a little and we thought we could make it but more shots came in and soon we could not move at all. Muhammad brought another Humvee down to us and Shaheen got out so that we could transfer the shot father and daughter to the new vehicle. Shaheen was hit right away in the stomach and went down. Muhammad dragged him to the working Humvee he had just brought and was himself shot six times but got Shaheen in and drove off. Both Shaheen and Muhammad were transported to a casualty collection point and then evacuated to Baghdad.

Muhammad is recovering very well but Shaheen is still in danger. He has survived two surgeries and raised his hand once but please keep praying for him. 

Back in the Humvee we could not move as ISIS poured more and more fire on us. I called our team to get help and Slowly, our Karen medic, Sky and Kevin, helped to keep the two wounded people alive. The father had been shot twice in the leg and was bleeding badly and his daughter was shot in the face, with the bullet going through her eye. We prayed and worked and eventually the Iraqis sent an Abrams tank down to cover us and suppress the multiple ISIS positions shooting at us. Another Humvee with our friend Haider and Justin drove down under this support, put a chain on our Humvee and pulled us out. 

Right away we went to work to save the father and daughter. We evacuated them but ISIS continued to shoot more civilians and more Iraqi soldiers; we continued to work to help. Here in the last three days ISIS has shot over 50 Iraqi soldiers and 20 civilians. 

We are now in How Kanisa area of West Mosul helping as we can and are grateful for your prayers, especially for Shaheen, Muhammad and the family we were helping.

God bless you,

Dave, family and teams