“A suicide bombing at a football stadium in Northern Iraq has killed 10 people and injured 120 others, police says” - BBC News, 14 May 2010

His name is Ibrahim, a Turkmen who lives and works in Tal Afar, 50 km from Mosul; a well-groomed, black-haired, smiling man in his thirties wearing a sand-coloured Kurdish tunic. One night, four months ago, he took his 3 sons to a football game. Halfway through the match a car pulled onto the field and exploded. Panicked spectators ran for the exits. Two suicide bombers were in the crowd, close to Ibrahim. His sons escaped with minor injuries, but he lost his right leg, well above his knee.

Ordinary people. Civilians with their individual stories; with their lives and families; but in our home countries, just a number in the odd news headline.