STACK #141 Jul 2016

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the help of Kenyan security forces, but once it becomes clear that the targets are about to embark on a suicide bombing, the mission escalates from a ‘capture’ to ‘kill’ operation. Aaron Paul plays drone pilot Steve Watts and as he is about to unleash a hellfire missile on to the house where the terrorists are preparing for the bombing, a young girl enters the ‘kill zone.’ As both British and US politicians debate whether to give the go ahead to fire, the clock is ticking – and they face a terrible moral dilemma; whether to go ahead and, in all likelihood, take the life of an innocent young girl, or whether to hold off and risk a suicide bombing that could kill many more innocents. “I think it’s a very important story and a very sensitive one that needs to be told; it’s about how innocent people get caught up in a war,” says Abdi. ”And as far as the story goes, I think I relate to the young girl’s situation because I was in a similar one.” Abdi was just seven years old when, along with his mother, two brothers and sister, he was caught in the middle of a war zone in Mogadishu in Somalia. “I was stuck in a war with my mom and my brother and my sister in Mogadishu, but our situation was much better,” he says. “Because in that war you could hear the guns and we could see where it was going – you could see it, you could run and you could hide, and you could go to another house. That’s war and it’s not easy. “But with drones the whole game changes completely, and you don’t know anything. They can strike from above and you don’t know when it’s coming. And Gavin talked to me about how it’s about the innocent people who get caught up in this and it’s very touching and very important to show people emotionally what happens. “We hear about it, we see it on TV, but we don’t know exactly how it feels and those innocent people who get caught up in it, you don’t hear about. It’s that terrible phrase ‘collateral damage’ but it’s someone’s life – someone who did

they started a new life. “I was only seven years old. I was a kid and it wasn’t easy but

• Eye in the Sky is out on July 20

nothing wrong and had no idea. And it’s not a video game; it’s someone’s life and I think it’s very important for people to understand that.” Abdi’s mother, Halima, managed to get her children out of Mogadishu and eventually to Minnesota in the US where It’s not a video game; it’s someone’s life and I think it’s very important for people to understand that.

thank God, we survived. And after God I’m giving the credit to my mom, who used her brilliant mind to get us out in a lot of ways that a man wouldn’t be able to get us out,” he says. “She is a very strong person and as a mother, the love you have for your kids is unbearable and nothing compares to it. She was put in a very hard situation and I can’t imagine being in a similar situation. “Now that I’m grown I know what it’s like and it was very hard for her. But she survived and she managed to get us out even though she has high blood pressure because of that.”

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