Badly burned Iraqi girl to get skin grafts

LEXINGTON, Ky., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A 12-year-old Iraqi girl badly burned during 2003 fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces has arrived in Kentucky for skin graft surgery, a report said.

Waghdan Aljayashee was all smiles when she arrived Tuesday at the Kentucky home of Dr. Mostafa Amr and his wife.

Dr. Nadia Rasheed, an anesthesiologist who lived in Baghdad for more than a dozen years, translated for the girl and her grandmother, neither of whom speaks English, as both repeatedly blessed and thanked those involved, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader reported.

"She's going to feel all the love in this house," Rasheed said.

An April 2003 military battle between U.S. and Iraqi forces set the family's farm at Samawah, Iraq, afire, leaving the girl with scar tissue that fused her arms and armpits and hinders her ability to breathe.

Cincinnati's Shriners Hospital, which specializes in burns, will perform the surgery free of charge.