KUWAIT CITY, April 16: A 12-year-old Iraqi boy who lost both arms, suffered extensive burns and was orphaned when a US missile hit his Baghdad home underwent surgery Wednesday, hours after he was flown to Kuwait, doctors said.

Three consultant plastic surgeons performed “biological skin grafting” on Ali Ismail Abbas, effectively removing all dead skin tissue in a one and a half hour operation, health ministry spokesman Ahmad al-Shatti told AFP.

“He’s all right. They did a fantastic job. They all came out with a smile. I got very positive feedback.” The child’s arms were amputated above the elbow in Baghdad after he was the sole survivor among 20 others killed when their house was hit in an attack by the US-British coalition on March 30.

Ali will be kept in the intensive care unit until Monday when “if all goes well, he will have a skin graft,” Abbas said

The boy went into surgery around 1:00 pm, Shatti said, for an estimated three-hour operation that only took half the time.

He arrived around 3:30 am at the specialised Al-Babtain burns centre where he was quickly diagnosed with burns to more than 20 percent of his body, plastic surgeon Imad Najada earlier told reporters at the hospital.—AFP