The badly burned child amputee who has become an icon of civilian suffering in the Iraq war is responding to treatment after having skin grafts, one of the doctors treating him has said.
Ali Ismaeel Abbas, 12, lost his lower arms, was orphaned and received severe burns when a missile hit his home during the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein. Doctors had warned he would die if he did not receive specialist treatment quickly.
Dr. Imad al-Najada told Reuters on Thursday the boy, now in Ibn Sina hospital in Kuwait, had begun eating food and drinking normally after recovering from initial surgery to place a temporary graft over the deep burns covering his chest, abdomen, and groin.
"His condition is much better...he has started to eat and drink normally," al-Najada said.
He said journalists could not visit Ali at the moment but that the doctors were hoping lots of food and rest would give him the strength to undergo further skin grafts.
"He's much happier today and he's received many gifts," including a video game, al-Najada said, adding that Ali had been told he would be fitted with prosthetic limbs.
The doctor said he expected Ali to remain in the intensive care unit at Ibn Sina hospital alongside three other wounded Iraqi children for at least another three to four weeks. When he is sufficiently recovered he will go to a general ward, where his physiotherapy will begin.
A hospital spokesman said earlier this week US forces had flown Ali from Baghdad to an airfield in Kuwait, where a hospital ambulance picked him up.
Ten days ago, the child haltingly told Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul in a Baghdad hospital how war had shattered his life.
"Can you help me get my arms back? Do you think the doctors can get me another pair of hands? If I don't get a pair of hands I will commit suicide," he said, crying.
Ali has received worldwide attention in newspapers and on television around the world, sparking a flood of fundraising appeals for war victims in Iraq.
Ali's uncle Mohammed al-Sultani said he had gradually conveyed to the boy that his pregnant mother, father, brother and 12 other relatives died when the missile obliterated their home.
"He knows by now and he understands the situation," al-Sultani told journalists. "In Iraq there are so many children like Ali," he said.
Al-Sultani said he planned to take Ali back to Baghdad to live with him and his family.
The British Red Cross said last week it had been inundated with calls from people wanting to donate money to Ali, adopt him, or help fly him out for treatment.