Aid agencies and UN officials are growing increasingly concerned about the fate of more than 200,000 Iraqis who fled their homes before the US-led assault on Fallujah.
At least 210,000 Iraqis are now living as refugees in deteriorating conditions and are unlikely to be able to return to their badly damaged city for several weeks, according to reports compiled by a UN-led emergency working group.
Families fled to at least nine villages in the desert around Fallujah in the weeks before the assault began last month. Others are staying in Baghdad, often with relatives. At least 100 families are camped out at Baghdad University mosque. Access to the refugees "remains sporadic due to insecurity and military operations," said the latest report.
"Shortages in fresh food items and cooking fuel have also been reported. The temperature has drop-ped, underscoring an urgent need for winterization items and appropriate shelter," it said.
US troops still maintain a tight cordon around Fallujah as they move from house to house, searching for insurgents and arms.
Water and electricity supplies are still cut off and the city's general hospital, the first target seized in the assault, remains under US military control, the report said.
The al-Rawda al-Mohammadia mosque has been turned into an aid center that residents can use for only four hours each morning. One of Fallujah's main health clinics was destroyed in the assault.
In another report two weeks ago, the group suggested that residents would not be allowed to return for some time: "Some reports are now suggesting that return to Fallujah may take a matter of months rather than days, as was previously suggested by multinational forces."
It is believed that residents will be allowed back one area at a time, once their area has been cleared. TV reports from the city suggest that hundreds of homes have been destroyed or severely damaged.
Only the Iraqi Red Crescent society has been able to enter the city, bringing convoys of food, medicine and blankets. The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday that it was ready to send an aid mission, but was waiting for an improvement in security.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
RSS