Mahdi Salari

Their story

Mahdi Salari was a student at Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab who was killed in the US attack on the school. He was an energetic boy who loved soccer. He really loved Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and the players on the Qatar national team, and he knew all their names by heart.

His mother said that after Mahdi left for school that morning, she went back to sleep because she was fasting. She woke up around 10:30 AM with her four-year-old son sleeping next to her. She checked her phone and saw a text from an unknown number. She didn't realize it was from Mahdi's teacher, so she ignored the message.

Ten minutes later, she heard a loud banging at the door. At first, she thought it was the neighbor's children. Then her husband called, crying, to say that Mahdi’s school had been hit. That was the moment her world fell apart.

She rushed out of the house. Her husband had taken the car, so she ran to the end of the street, shouting for someone to drive her to the school. People tried to tell her that the school hadn't been hit and that the target was somewhere else, but she could not calm down. When they got close, the traffic was so bad that she had to get out about a kilometer away. She ran toward the school barefoot, over rocks and broken glass. When she arrived, the school was completely destroyed. Parents were crying and searching for their children. Backpacks, hair clips, and soccer balls were scattered everywhere. Someone warned her to be careful because of the glass, but she said she didn't care if the glass cut her, because her child was trapped under the rubble.

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