AN IRAQI baby girl was fighting for her life in a Liverpool hospital last night after a dramatic mercy flight from the war-torn Gulf.
Six-month-old Mareyam Ailan arrived at John Lennon Airport with nine injured soldiers, including one from Merseyside.
Last night, Mareyam's parents were at her bedside as she was treated for serious burns in an isolated area of the intensive care unit at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
Ministry of Defence officials said the baby - thought to be the first Iraqi casualty to be treated in Britain - was rescued from a house fire in Basra in an incident unrelated to the recent street fighting between Iraqi troops and British forces.
After the blaze, Mareyam's parents app- roached British soldiers at a check-point on the outskirts of Basra and pleaded for them to help. She was taken behind the front line to a field hospital where doctors decided the baby needed life-saving treatment in the UK.
Mareyam and her parents were airlifted to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus over the weekend, where they were met by a specialist burns team from Alder Hey.
They joined a flight evacuating eight British soldiers and one member of the RAF who had been wounded during recent fighting.
The chartered Boeing 757 flight left Cyprus at 4.30am yesterday morning and arrived in Liverpool at 11.15am.
An MoD spokesman described the evacuation as "an exceptional humanitarian case."
He said: "As the flight was leaving to bring casualties home, a decision was taken on humanitarian grounds to include her on the flight.
"She is suffering from burns sustained in a domestic house fire unrelated to the conflict.
"The parents were upset and worried about their daughter and came to the Forces in the area and said 'Can you help my baby'.
"The treatment needed to save her life could not be provided in the operations area.
"Time was short and the flight meant she could be whisked away very quickly. It is not MoD policy to bring civilians into the UK. However, this was an exceptional case."
A spokesman for Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority last night described Mareyam's condition as stable.
A spokeswoman for Alder Hey said: "We can confirm that a six-month-old Iraqi girl is being treated at the hospital for burns.
"She is being treated in the intensive care unit and after an initial assessment is said to be stable."
Babies with more than 10pc burns require 24-hour nursing supervision in an intensive care unit and intravenous fluids.
Alder Hey and Booth Hall Children's Hospital Manchester, are the only two medical centres in the North West which can treat babies with severe burns.
Sue Ripley, ward sister at the burns unit at Booth Hall, said doctors would spend the next few days helping Mareyam battle against infection.
She said: "There is high risk of infection and patients are often treated in an isolation cubicle.
"There are a number of treatments available and a lot will depend on when a patient was burnt and what treatment the patient has already received.
"One treatment is to use biological dressings which stay on the skin for two to three weeks before a skin graft is completed. Biological dressings can be used from cow or pig skin."
