On June 23, she said Muhammad, a 32-year-old furniture maker, was waiting in his truck at an American checkpoint in Ramadi when a gun battle broke out. Witnesses said Muhammad was lightly wounded in the cross-fire and then detained by American forces.
Three days later, American troops returned Muhammad's truck. But they did not know what had happened to Muhammad.
The other day, as she had done before, Ms. Kudi went to an assistance center in Baghdad to check the computer database of prisoners. Again, she stepped into a little office and sat down in a little chair. Again, she watched a woman behind a desk key in her son's name. Again, she was told there was no record.
A line of people waited behind her. Many got the same empty news.
The reasons for the detentions differ. The military authorities say they arrested Ms. Waad's husband because he may have played a part in shooting down a Chinook helicopter last year. Ms. Waad said that he was a taxi driver and that it was a case of mistaken identity.
Mr. Abdulhamid, who has been looking for his son for three weeks, said his son was arrested because he was at a wedding where guns were shot off in celebration. It is a common story.
In Abu Sifa, the farming village north of Baghdad, 83 people were detained in December during a raid for a high-level former member of Mr. Hussein's Baath Party. But people in Abu Sifa say everyone here was a Baathist.
"Even the dogs were Baathists," said Munther Haddam, a farmer. "What's the big deal?"
Ms. Hassan, who lives with her 10-year-old grandson, said American soldiers took her four adult sons. "Couldn't they have left me one?" she asked.
Most of the village teachers were led away, too.
Saba Muhammad, an Abu Sifa elder, began to count them on his hands: Salah, Faisal, Ahmed, Ayub, Emad, Raad.
Soon he ran out of fingers.
"Eleven," Mr. Muhammad said. "Eleven teachers. Now you tell me how we're supposed to feel about Americans."