ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Nearly two months have passed, and the bodies of two small boys who slipped beneath the waters of the Sirwan River in Iraq’s Diyala province remain missing, despite weeks of relentless searching.
Five-year-old Ilyas Yasin and his four-year-old cousin Adam disappeared outside the town of Jalawla, in Khanaqin district, 50 days ago. What began as an ordinary afternoon unraveled in the span of five unguarded minutes.
“We were only unaware for five minutes,” said Yasin Karim, Ilyas’s father, his voice heavy with disbelief. “They cycled into the water.”
Since that day, Karim has returned again and again to the riverbank, his eyes fixed on the water and on the rescue teams combing its depths.
“They were just children. They didn’t know anything,” he said quietly. “It has been 49 days, and the searches are still going.”
For the families, the only flicker of hope has come from the river itself - its water level slowly dropping, its current less violent, its surface clearer, calmer.
Their grandfather, Karim Yousif, pleads for help.
“We are waiting for the underwater search teams to arrive from Baghdad,” he said. “We want to end this wait by Friday. Now that the water is clear and still, crews can go in without a boat.”
He does not speak of closure, only of ending the waiting - the cruel uncertainty that has lingered for 50 days.
The Sirwan River has claimed lives before. According to Diyala police data, nine people drowned near Jalawla in 2015 alone.
For now, the river flows on, while the two families stand at its edge, hoping it will finally return their boys.
Hunar Hameed contributed to this report from Diyala province.
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