Families leave as tension rises in Samarrah

At least 10 families a day are leaving Samarrah, 120 km from the Iraqi capital Baghdad, because of rising tension between US forces and insurgents there, according to humanitarian agencies and religious leaders. Iraqi Red Crescent workers are stockpiling food and medical supplies in Baghdad to take to Samarrah if fighting breaks out, Mazin Abdullah Salloum, vice-president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, told IRIN in Baghdad, adding that officials over the weekend made contingency plans to deal with fighting or any other contingency. "We will deal with any humanitarian need," he said. "We have a disaster management team to monitor the situation in Iraq." Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are also watching events in Samarrah, Nada Doumani, an ICRC spokeswoman, told IRIN from the Jordanian capital, Amman. In addition, the French-based NGO Premiere Urgence also sent a team to the city recently to check on humanitarian needs, Fanny Lafourcade, a spokeswoman, told IRIN in Baghdad. Families started leaving the predominantly Sunni Muslim city two weeks ago in fear that US forces were about to attack, Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafoor al-Samarraye, a Muslim religious leader based in Baghdad, told IRIN. Samarrah residents are known for their loyalty to former President Saddam Hussein. The city is in an area northwest of Baghdad known as the "Sunni Triangle" where attacks against US troops have been common. Families stayed temporarily with relatives in villages outside the city or in Baghdad before returning home about a week ago after negotiations between US forces and religious leaders appeared to calm the situation, al-Samarraye said. But increased numbers of people started leaving again in recent days as tension started rising again, he added. "We are alarmed at the situation," al-Samarraye said. "Resistance fighters have decided to attack the American forces on the [main] bridge if they refuse to withdraw. It will be a huge battle and many people will be killed." A spokesman for US troops disagreed with Samarraye's assessment of why people wanted to leave. "Insurgents are shelling civilian houses; US troops aren't even in the city," Major Neal O'Brien, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division, told IRIN in Baghdad. "People are leaving because, essentially, there is a pattern of indiscriminate mortar fire and random attacks on the populace," O'Brien said. "People are leaving because of threats and intimidation. We don't see any mass exodus - people are waiting to see what potentially could happen," he added. According to O'Brien, insurgents appear to be travelling back and forth between Samarrah and neighbouring Fallujah, where fighting in April killed hundreds of civilians and some US soldiers. "We are looking to isolate, capture or kill insurgents," he said. "There are indications that this is an outside influence on the city." But what's going on in Samarrah is quite different to previous fighting in Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, and Najaf, about three hours' drive south of the capital, O'Brien maintained. Soldiers are working with local religious and civic leaders to calm tensions, first of all, he said. They're also still working at a feverish pace to recruit and train new Iraqi national guard and police officers, he explained. "We have to train a much better guard and police force in Samarrah. The fact is, they're having challenges in containing the insurgents," O'Brien said. "The people who have the power to stop this are the sheikhs - the religious leaders and the civilian leaders. It's just a matter of urging more patience to resolve this." International and local aid agencies launched a massive aid campaign for Fallujah residents in April as fighting caught some residents unaware. At one point, up to 100,000 people were estimated to have fled their homes. Many stayed in a refugee camp in west Baghdad. In May, ICRC and other major humanitarian agencies stockpiled medical and food supplies in Najaf to plan for increased fighting there. While there was no mass exodus of people, fighting closed a large regional hospital and left health services in disarray.