Iraq: Mohammed Abboud said he watched his nine-year-old son bleed to death at their Falluja home, unable to take him to hospital as fighting raged in the streets and bombs rained down on the Iraqi city.
In the midst of a US onslaught and hemmed in by a round-the-clock curfew, he said he had little choice but to bury his eldest son, Ghaith, in the garden.
"My son got shrapnel in his stomach when our house was hit at dawn, but we couldn't take him for treatment," said Abboud, a teacher.
"We buried him in the garden because it was too dangerous to go out. We did not know how long the fighting would last."
Residents say scores of civilians have been killed or wounded in 24 hours of fighting since US-led forces pushed deep into the rebel-held city on Monday evening.
Doctors said people brought in at least 15 dead civilians at the main clinic in Falluja on Monday. By yesterday there were no clinics open, residents said, and no way to count casualties.
Sami al-Jumaili, a doctor at Falluja Hospital, said the city was running out of medical supplies.
"There is not a single surgeon in Falluja. We had one ambulance hit by US fire and a doctor wounded. There are scores of injured civilians in their homes whom we can't move," he said by telephone from a house where he had gone to help the wounded. "A 13-year-old child just died in my hands."
Witnesses said weekend air raids destroyed a clinic funded by an Islamic relief organisation in the centre of Falluja, and a nearby warehouse used to store medical supplies.
Many families fled the city of 300,000 long before the offensive began. An official from a Sunni Muslim group with links to some rebels in Falluja said on Monday only about 60,000 remained.
Residents say they have no power, and are using kerosene lamps at night. They say they keep to ground floors for safety.
"My kids are hysterical with fear," said Farhan Saleh. "They are traumatised by the sound, but there is nowhere to take them."
The US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said on Monday he did not foresee large numbers of civilian casualties in the assault, saying US forces were disciplined and precise.
Those words were of little comfort to the Abboud family, sitting in a house damaged by the bomb that killed their child. "We just bandaged his stomach and gave him water, but he was losing a lot of blood. He died this afternoon," said Abboud.