Japanese surgeons on Wednesday removed a bullet from the head of a 13-year-old Afghan girl, eight years after she was shot in a gun battle in Kabul.
Fatema Safar was hit by a stray bullet from an AK47 rifle during the shootout near her house in Kabul in 1996 as the Taleban fought for control of the country, according to a Tokyo aid group, Aid for War Orphans in Asia.
Doctors at the International Medical Centre in Tokyo removed the bullet, which was 3.7 centimetres (1.5 inches) long and 7 millimetres in diameter, from the girl's left temple, the group said.
The operation was a success and the girl is recovering in hospital, the Tokyo-based non-government organisation added.
Safar arrived here on July 22 with the aid of the NGO, which helped to raise the eight million yen (73,000 dollars) for the operation.
She had suffered from chronic headaches since the shooting but was unaware a bullet was in her head until May, when the group helped her get an X-ray at an Afghan hospital, it said.
The bullet, lodged inside her skull just below the left eye, had corroded, causing the girl to discharge pus from her nose, the NGO said in an earlier message posted on its Internet site.
Afghan doctors had said she might only live two to three more years if the bullet was not removed, according to the website. No neurosurgeon was available in Afghanistan to carry out such an operation.
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