Repair work continuing in Fallujah

Following recent air strikes in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, some 30 km west of Baghdad, aid workers are still trying to provide aid and carry out repair work. A truce was declared there late in April, after weeks of fighting that killed up to 1,000 Iraq insurgents and more than 100 US soldiers, according to statistics from NGOs. Families who had fled the fighting to stay with relatives, or in a camp in al-Hadhra district in western Baghdad, went home to assess the damage. Aid agencies at the time thought that up to 100,000 people might have been temporarily displaced. Human Relief Foundation, a local aid agency, estimates that up to 140 homes that were destroyed have still not been repaired. US forces spent thousands of dollars on various repair projects for the city, which is seen as a stronghold of supporters of former President Saddam Hussein. Various projects were started to get people back to work, said Mohammed Makki Fathi, operations manager at Islamic Relief, a British-based aid agency working in Baghdad. In recent weeks, US forces bombed several suspected terrorist "safehouses" in the city, killing dozens of people. The new Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has expressed support for the bombings, suggesting that Iraqi intelligence officers have been involved in deciding where to hit. In the wake of the violence, Islamic Relief worked with a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)budget of US $140,000 to clean the streets and build a park, Fathi said. Fallujah city hall members suggested the Hay Nazal and al-Julan areas of the city get special attention from workers, since those two neighbourhoods were heavily hit by fighting, he said. "This is an area where there was a lot of damage," Fathi said. "We helped people, because we got them working, even if it was temporary." After three weeks of cleaning, planting and watering, residents now can go to the local park and see new grass and trees, Fathi said. Islamic Relief already had experience in mobilising large numbers of people to clean up the streets after doing a similar project in the capital in June 2003, just after the fall of the former regime, Fathi said. Meanwhile, agencies discuss regularly what food and other humanitarian items need to be sent to the city, according to one aid worker. She declined to have her name used for security reasons. At the height of the fighting, more than 10 trucks per day took clean water, bread, cooking gas and food and hygiene items into the city. Medical supplies also were taken through military checkpoints. The UN flew in blood donations from Amman in neighbouring Jordan. Italian Red Cross workers trucked an estimated 1,000 litres of distilled water to the al-Hadhra displaced persons camp, according to officials. Doctors Without Borders and the Middle East Church Council also brought food, water and medical supplies to families, said Mohammed Ibrahim, deputy director of the Iraqi Red Crescent. In addition, mosques in the area coordinated by the Muslim Association of Scholars and other religious leaders, gathered supplies, including blankets and clothing, and distributed them in Fallujah. Aid agency workers are also building a new water treatment plant in the Jabal neighbourhood, distributing desks and chairs to schools and discussing bringing in new generators to give residents more reliable electricity.