The director of the general authority for the environment, Samir Kadim, explained that dangerous contamination was found in military equipment left at a small village south of Karima that saw severe fighting between the Iraqi army and the US-led coalition forces in 2003.

Kadim laments that the contamination was not discovered soon after the military operation ended. Since then several people have been diagnosed with various serious diseases, from cancer to birth defects.

"Unfortunately, we have discovered it late, after a number of the village’s residents have been diagnosed with various diseases."

“Many need professional medical help only available abroad. Some succumbed to the disease without receiving any treatment.”

An Iraqi citizen, Abboud Moussa told the New Arab: "Cancer has spread among us, in addition to birth defects among new-born babies and other diseases that doctors cannot explain."

"But it is only now that we have discovered the cause – it is the US."

The village's mayor Mahmoud Abtan told the New Arab that a routine visit to the village by officials from the Ministry of Environment encouraged the villagers to ask them to examine a number of areas that had a bad smell.

"A number of animals grazing near those areas have died … people even thought that those areas were possessed. Then it turned out that they are not possessed at all, and our murderer is the US," he said, as quoted by the Global Research.

Abdel Khalek Mahmoud, an environmental expert, also told the New Arab that allegedly depleted uranium was used in Iraq by the US in 2003. "This is abundantly found and it has caused a lot of lethal damage in the country."