Injured Iraqi Boy on the Mend

Jan. 22, 2007 — -- When ABC News first brought you Ali Sadoon's story, the 13-year-old shepherd had just arrived at an American combat hospital after being hit by a stray coalition bullet.

Ali's amazing smile made him hard to miss. This weekend, we decided to check up on him and brought him a few gifts from America.

After almost losing his foot, Ali is ready to go home.

I asked him what was the first thing he wanted to do when he got home.

"Give my mother a kiss," he said in Arabic.

Ali's story could have been very different.

When he first arrived at the hospital, he wasn't flashing that million-dollar smile. He was afraid and angry. His father had been killed by coalition forces.

Ali thought U.S. troops were the enemy, something a growing number of young Iraqi boys believe. Many young people are poor; they also are hostile toward the occupying Americans.

With education in short supply in areas and many families fatherless or desperate for money, kids become easy recruits for insurgents.

Sometimes kids are paid to plant improvised explosive devices, because they don't attract as much suspicion as older men.

Military officials say the majority of insurgents they see are very young; some are as young as 10.

That could have been Ali, but his misfortune actually brought him closer to Americans. The soldiers who shot him spent several days with him in the hospital. Now Ali -- who loves school, especially math class -- wants to be a doctor.

Hopefully, his story will have a happy ending.