Tiny Hamid Ullah lies in a soiled, damp hospital bed, his fragile body covered in shrapnel wounds. Every so often his face twists in pain and he whimpers. This innocent 12-month-old is one of the youngest victims of the US bombing campaign on Afghanistan.
Hamid arrived here at the Al-Hajerei Al-Khimat hospital in Quetta in southern Pakistan on Tuesday. His mother, Radidigul, swathed in bandages, lies unconcious in the next bed.
Her baby is covered in a dirty blanket, and flies are buzzing around his scarred face. In between crying he sucks on his hand. His uncle keeps a protective eye, and then tries to feed him milk from a bottle.
Hamid lost his four brothers and sisters in a US bombing attack on his village, Tarin Kannt, 80 miles from the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in Afghanistan, on Sunday night. Twenty-two people in his village are said to have been killed.
Doctors explain that his mother, Radidigul has a serious eye and arm injury. Half an hour earlier, we saw her being wheeled out of the hospital operating theatre. The theatre nurses showed us shrapnel which had been taken from her body.
While her wounds are treatable, there is nothing the hospital staff can do to ease the pain she will endure for the loss of her children. She knows they are dead. A nurse, Abdul Naeem, says the mother slipped out of unconsciousness briefly at one stage and cried for her dead sons and daughters. Her face is swollen and red and she is breathing with difficulty.
On the bed on the other side of Radidigul is her 12-year-old niece, Kaman. She sits motionless, twisting round and around a small teddy bear a journalist has placed in her hands. Her face is totally blank, not a flicker of recognition in her eyes. Even the flash of camera lights don't cause her to blink.
Kaman's hair is filthy and matted to her head. Doctors say she is suffering from severe trauma and hearing loss. She has not spoken a word since she arrived two days ago. This family are not supporters of the Taliban, but still the American bombs came and wiped out their homes.
Another relative, shopkeeper Sami Ullah, is lying with a serious leg wound in the next ward. He was injured in the sustained bombing of his village while he was trying to rescue people trapped under fallen buildings. He lost his wife, daughter and two sons in the attack.
"The airplanes came at around 8 p.m. and started to drop their bombs from the sky. We went to help the injured and to shift them to hospital. We were lifting people from under rubble when more bombs came. I got injured in the second attack".
Sami said the village where he lives is far from Taliban bases, but 4 km from a Taliban office. None of the villagers were connected with the Taliban. "Most of those killed were women and children. Before this I was not in favour of the Taliban but after what happened I support them. America is targeting innocent people."
A total of five people came over the border to this private hospital in Quetta on Tuesday. Civilian casualties from Afghanistan are now beginning to trickle across to Pakistan for treatment, with hospitals in Afghanistan stretched to capacity.
This week there have been reports of civilian casualties from Kabul being brought to Peshawar in north-west Pakistan. The numbers are expected to increase in the coming weeks.
The wounded who arrived here on Tuesday are the first proof of civilian casualties in the alliance's war against terrorism.
This hospital is funded by "rich Muslims" according to the medical director, Dr Ata Ur Rahaman.
It opened in 1979 when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and has treated 20,000 people from over the border in the last 22 years of war and conflict. "We are no strangers to war victims. We have treated people here for all sorts of wounds and for land mine injuries." Dr Rahaman was visiting a medical base in Spinbuldak, about 10 km over the border in Afghanistan, on Tuesday when he saw the victims and organised for them to come to Quetta for treatment. They were driven by ambulance to the border and were then taken by taxi to Quetta.
"The medical base in Spinbuldak and the main hospital in Kandahar are full and overstretched. When I was at Spindulak, a patient died while being treated. There are many civilians dying from the bombs." Dr Rahaman said his hospital can only treat 100 bomb victims. "Whoever comes here my staff are ready to do the best we can." The wards in the hospital are dirty and seem badly equipped. It is a place that is ripe for infection. But by Pakistan standards, Al-Hajeri Al-Khidmat is a palace.
According to Dr Rahaman, the people of Afghanistan are angry and revengeful. "They will be seeking the death of the enemy," he says.
Correction: The above article by Miriam Donohoe was scheduled to appear in yesterday's editions. Due to a technical error, a reprint of a previous article, headed "Children of Wars that ravaged Afghanistan" appeared in its place.