How this Iraqi man was reunited with his lost family after 30 years

Amar Kanim was believed to be orphaned during Saddam Hussein’s regime. The truth was only discovered decades later.

Source: Dateline

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An Iraqi man who was brought to the United Kingdom as a child for treatment of horrific burns has met his mother three decades after they were separated.

Amar Kanim, now 40, was just ten-years-old when he suffered almost fatal injuries in a Napalm attack near his home in Iraq.

The hospital Amar was staying said they could not properly treat his wounds and believed his family were killed in the attack. He was then made famous when Emma Nicholson, a UK politician visiting the region, started a campaign to bring the young boy to her country for treatment.

Emma and Amar meet in 1991. Source: Dateline

Alone, but watched by millions, Amar was brought to the United Kingdom for surgery.

“As a child you don’t understand what happened to you. Why are you in a different place,” Amar said.

After more than 30 operations, the doctors advised he should not be moved again, so Emma gave young Amar a home. 

Despite making persistent inquiries to find the boy’s family in the 90s, Emma was not able to find his relatives. Eventually, Amar made a life in the United Kingdom, believing his family in Iraq had all died.

A mother who never lost hope

Three decades later, Amar received a message on Facebook of a woman in Iraq interrupting a news broadcast claiming Amar was her son. Along with the recording, there was a photo of Amar as a boy, before the napalm attack.

The woman was Zarah, an Iraqi who said she had not given up on finding her eldest son. She had not heard the news he was sent to the UK, and only connected the dots when she found his photo in a newspaper months earlier.

Amar recieved mysterious messages on Facebook linking him with his past. Source: Dateline

“I’ll keep looking for my son. I’ll never give up on him,” she said.

With thousands separated during the war in Iraq, the pair did a DNA test to conclusively assess if Amar was in-fact Zarah’s eldest son. The results proved, with 99 percent accuracy, the pair are mother and son. 

Amar travelled to Iraq to meet his mother. The reunion, by all accounts, was a happy one.

“This has been amazing, the best moment of my life. A dream come true, I feel like I am born again,” Amar said.

Zahra was elated, “My son is a hero, a superhero.”

Amar returned to the UK but said he would continue to visit his family in Iraq.

Zarah said she never gave up looking for her son. Source: Dateline