Four Iraqi children arrive in Prague for heart operation

Four Iraqi children suffering from serious heart problems arrived in Prague on Thursday to undergo surgery. The three boys aged between four and five and a one-year-old girl were each accompanied by their father. The patients were selected for treatment by Czech doctors who worked in the Czech military field hospital in Basra, southern Iraq, last year. Given their serious heart defects, the four children would not have survived in Iraq without appropriate help. The children are the last from Basra to be treated at the Czech government's expense in Prague and their treatment will cost about 5 million crowns (160,000 euros). A total of 22 Iraqi children have already been brought to the country and operated on at Motol hospital. The plane in which the children arrived on Thursday also brought back to Prague 37 Czech military police officers who had ended their mission in Iraq.