MARWA FALAJ is 11 years old. One night last week a missile dropped on her home in Baghdad. Her leg was so mangled that it became gangrenous and had to be amputated above the knee.

She was just one of many children huddled under shabby blankets in Baghdad’s Shawadar hospital yesterday. Outside, mortar fire echoed around the Saddam City district. With every sound, their faces tightened in fear.

Ahmad Farhan was in a nearby bed. Next to him his injured sisters, Wassel and Amira, lay side by side. Their three-month-old sister Zaina is missing, lost in the rubble of what was once their home.

Ali Ismail Abbas you may already know; his story has caught the imagination of the world. The 12-year-old’s arms were blown off when his home was attacked.

Ali, soaked in his own blood, woke up to a blazing fire. His parents and brother had been killed in the blast, as had his uncle, aunt, four cousins and three other relatives.

To help children like these, The Sunday Times is launching an appeal today for the medical aid charity Merlin. Your help will save lives and make a real difference to families who have lost so much.

Merlin specialises in providing healthcare in times of crisis. Its doctors and nurses are working in some of the most dangerous places on earth, including Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Now they are poised to bring medical aid and drugs to Iraq’s hospitals and clinics.

The charity prides itself on being “lean, mean and efficient” (93p in every £1 given goes directly to progammes in the field).

Iraq’s hospitals are desperate. Last week Ali and the other children had to be moved from Baghdad’s Al-Kindi hospital for their own safety. Many staff have abandoned the hospital while they try to get their own families out of the city. Gangs of looters have robbed hospitals of beds and even incubators for babies.

The most acute danger comes from a lack of water and electricity. The Al-Kindi hospital mortuary is filled with corpses. Other bodies are out on stretchers in the sun. Such conditions must very soon spread disease.

At Shawadar, they are managing 20 operations a day but the hospital is dangerously stretched. The director has worked for 22 days non-stop with no more than five hours’ sleep a night. All the staff are exhausted.

Ali lies all day on his back in an old creaky metal bed which is far from comfortable. Doctors are concerned because he should be on a moving bed to keep his back muscles massaged and prevent bed sores, but they do not have one.

Having lost both arms, Ali is terrified of what the future holds. He jumps at the slightest bang.

“I am not happy because my dad and mum and brother died,” he said, grimacing with pain. “I do not have a house any more. What will I do? Where will I go? Will you take me? Will you help me?”

His 53-year-old aunt, Jamila Abbas, fussed over him, trying to comfort him with prayers. Doctors fear time may be running out for Ali. His burns are so severe he risks septicaemia unless he is taken to a hospital that can offer intensive care.

Three more children were brought into Shawadar hospital yesterday, victims of fighting between Iraqi factions, but there was nothing the doctors could do to save them.

Please help Merlin to bring aid to Iraq. You can make a donation by telephone, using your credit card, on 020 7378 4892/3.