This area was heavily bombed during the Gulf War. According to the U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute, more than 900,000 depleted uranium tipped bullets were fired. When they exploded, say experts, toxic substances were released in the ground and air, and after four or five years, entered the food chain, affecting human lives. Gulf War syndrome has been reported in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and even among American soldiers on the ground. (Washington denies that the illnesses are caused by depleted uranium.) The Iraqi government has noted a remarkable increase in cancer, reduced fertility, miscarriages and children born with congenital defects. In the southern Basra province, multiple congenital malformation cases have shot up from 37 in 1990 to 301 in 2002. "We have a generation of children that are going to die too soon," says Dr. Jnana Ghalib Hassan, Zainab's pediatrician. "First the Americans poisoned our land, and now we are being denied medicines to help these people."

Dr. Hassan stalks through the cancer ward of the Basra hospital where several children lie hooked up to intravenous drips. She shows hideous photographs of damaged children, many of them little more than lumps of meat. Those did not make it, but there are plenty that would survive if only they had some medication. But these are poor people and cannot afford medicines. Cancer drugs, for instance, fall under the dual use category and are listed under UN sanctions. So, although medical services are highly subsidized in Iraq, these children can have no treatment. Leukemia patients are given a blood transfusion and discharged. Other cancers are treated symptomatically. Everything is available in Iraq, even medicines, but come at a heavy price in the black market. A drug that the in the states would sell for around $80 U.S. can cost up to $80,000. "I know these children are going to die," says Dr Hassan. "But I don't say anything. I just send them home."

» TIME.com: Letter from Iraq: The Children's Ward