CNS PHOTO | PAUL JEFFREY A boy injured in fighting in Misrata, Libya, is pictured near a burned-out vehicle. The city has been torn by months of war between rebels and troops loyal to strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

Fifteen-year-old Mohammed Majeed had grown so accustomed to the war raging around him that he lost his fear of the ordnance scattered on the ground in his neighbourhood.

One day in April, he found a rifle grenade just outside his front door and carried the projectile inside.

The next day, as he played with it, it exploded in his hand.

"We heard a sudden roar from his room and went running to see what happened.

We found him crying, and there was blood and parts of his hand on the ceiling," said his father, Abdul Majeed.

Mohammed lost four of the fingers on his left hand and has had several operations since the accident.

Throughout this city, which was liberated by rebel fighters at a high cost and still remains under rocket fire from soldiers supporting Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, children have paid a high cost in the conflict.

Besides suffering directly during the combat that raged in the city center, they have suffered as they picked up debris that is, at times, unexploded ordnance.