Just 10 years old, Habibi lived the embodiment of a happy childhood until May 2003 when the U.S.'s 3ID ACR thundered into town.  His neighborhood near the Ar Ramadi city center saw heavy fighting in those early hours and days most shuttered themselves away or fled the city altogether relinquishing it to Iraqi Insurgency Fighters.  But Habibi's family was not so fortunate, their entire livelihood was based on maintaining his families small general store passed down for three generations. And on that fateful day that would change his life forever when, K Troop (Killer), a Recon Element from the 3rd's 4th Squadron (Longknife) was caught out in the open, exposed to enemy fire while conducting a dismounted patrol, the young Habibi was hard at work manning the counter while his parents napped along with Habibi's baby sister just 18 moths old in the apartment above. Facing heavy enemy opposition the recon element sought out refuge within nearby building using a tried and tested method of acquiring emergency cover. They fired an HEDP 502 from an AT4  into the window directly above the store's sign that read Abu Habibi's, in order to clear the structure of what they assumed was enemy fighters while preserving the structure. Upon hearing and feeling the impact Habibi ran up the stairs to and into the apartment which had been set ablaze.  Much to the dismay of the men from the recon element, when they entered the structure they discovered young Habibi alive and still on fire laying before the door to his parents bedroom; it was abundantly clear that there were no other survivors.  The recon element evacuated Habibi who was barely alive and burned over 90% of his body.  But after months of treatment and recovery Habibi was returned to Ar Ramadi to face an uncertain future as an orphaned, child-victim of war. In 2004 he lives for periods of time at one of the underfunded and overwhelmed orphanages that littler the new Iraqi landscape, and the rest of the time he drifts among II fighters on the street who have adopted him as a symbol of their cause.  During these times he returns to the burned out shell that was his family home to sleep in his old bed amongst the ruins of his former life.  It is here that he eventually meets up with Damien (a.k.a. Chief D.O.A.) and an unlikely alliance is born out of mutual desperation. Habibi reared as a devout Shi'a Muslim by his parents, though he advertises himself as a Sun'ni in the mostly Sun'ni enclave of Ar Ramadi, works to understand why Damien chooses to live without a God as a guide.