Life and death at a front-line Iraqi army field clinic

Medic Taher Habeter, 47, unloads an injured soldier at the Iraqi army’s 9th Armored Division medical clinic.

Maj. Gen. Raad Mohssan Dakhel comforts a soldier injured by a suicide bomb explosion.

Capt. Osama Fuad Rauf oversees the bandaging of a soldier who was injured in a suicide car bombing.

A group of Mosul civilians who were injured when a car bomb exploded near their house,are treated at the Iraqi Army’s 9th Armored Division medical clinic. Doha Abdel Setar, 17, right, holds her 5-month-old son Marwan, whose head was grazed by shrapnel. “If you guys didn’t show up, this never would have happened,” she told Fuad.

Mahmoud Hussein arrived at the field hospital after a suicide truck bombing hit his home. His name was on an Islamic State suspect list, so he was taken into custody later in the night.

Captain Osama Fuad Rauf treats a group of civilians brought to the field clinic after their house was destroyed by a suicide truck bombing.

Medic Taher Habeter takes a break at a field clinic where he and many other men have been working for weeks treating the wounded.

The body of a soldier waits to be moved into a refrigerated truck, which serves as a field morgue.

“Why didn’t you do anything for him?” the soldier wailed to his cousin Salam Jabar Fayad (not shown) as Capt. Osama Fuad Rauf consoles him. The soldier’s other cousin, Hasan Qatah Duigr, 39, of Baghdad, had died instantly in a mortar attack while trying to aid civilians in Intisar, a neighborhood near Mosul.

Capt. Osama Fuad Rauf, next to a refrigerated truck that serves as morgue, says each time a soldier dies, it takes away a bit of his soul.

Capt. Osama Fuad Rauf and other medical personnel say a prayer as the bodies of two soldiers are prepared for transport. Fuad recited the Fatiha, the opening verses of the Koran: “Guide us, oh Lord, on the straight path, the path of those upon whom you have bestowed your bounties, not of those inflicted with your wrath, nor of those gone astray.”

Jawad Mustafa, 35, had already lost a brother two years ago during the Ramadi offensive; now he’s lost another brother in the Mosul offensive.

Captain Osama Fuad Rauf checks the status of a patient a the Iraqi Army’s 9th Armored Division medical clinic, set up in a home Karemlis, Iraq.

Capt. Osama Fuad Rauf works on a patient as another holds a cellphone above for additional light at the Iraqi Army’s 9th Armored Division medical clinic.

The Iraqi army’s 9th Armored Division medical clinic is in a home formerly used by Islamic State fighters after the owners fled. An ambulance leaves for Irbil with more wounded.

A frontline first aid station in Scheherazade, Iraq, where several injured soldiers are being evacuated.

“Daesh uses families as human shields,” said Ali Mohamed, 25, second from right with bandaged cheek. “They were hiding behind them and shooting us.”