One Iraqi Family Copes With Killing

BAGHDAD, May 18, 2006 — -- At city morgues and hospitals in Iraq the bodies arrive by the dozens -- every day.

Many are Iraqis who were gunned down on the streets and in their homes, like 37-year-old Thaier al-Ubaidi.

He was a police officer in Baghdad, which is dangerous work, but he wasn't killed on the job. He was killed last month on his way to buy dinner for his four children, who range in age from 3 to 14.

As his brother Jasim explains it, a group of gunmen drove past in a car and shot al-Ubaidi five times.

His brother took him to the hospital, but his life could not be saved.

His brothers say they don't know why Thaier was killed. He witnessed a murder the day before, and they said maybe that had something to do with his killing. But he was also a Sunni Muslim, so it may have been a sectarian killing. His family just does not know.

Thaier is a veteran of the Gulf War, and spent his free time praying, reading the Koran, and raising his children.

His 3-year-old, Abdullah, says he hopes his father enters heaven.

He was just one of the more than 1,000 Iraqis killed last month, but for al-Ubaidi's daughter Rasha, he was all she had.