Samarrah hospital urgently needs medical supplies

Medical staff at the Samarrah General Hospital, 125 km west of the capital, Baghdad, say more lives could be saved if they had urgently needed medical supplies. The hospital has been flooded with people injured during the latest fighting between US forces and insurgents, which started on Friday. "We have received seriously wounded people in the facilities of our hospital. There are children, women and men. The hospital isn't able to offer complete treatment to all of them," Dr Khalid Ahmad, vice director of the hospital, told IRIN. At least 100 bodies and more than 160 wounded were brought to Samarrah General Hospital, doctors say. But it was not immediately clear how many of them were insurgents. According to US troops, 130 insurgents had been killed and 92 captured in fighting, however. The hospital was running out of bandages, oxygen and emergency supplies. "Sometimes you have to choose which patient to treat, because the materials are not enough and pain killers are something very rare in our indoor pharmacy," Ahmed added. In a press conference on Sunday, the Ministry of Health said it was working fast to send medical supplies to the city, but that insecurity was hindering the speed at which they could deliver. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people are without electricity and water since air strikes started on Friday, according to local officials, who say it could take days to repair the infrastructure, which was already rundown. US troops have also ordered residents to stay off the streets as they moved from house to house in search of insurgents. A curfew was announced through loud-speakers on the streets of the city of no movement between 7 pm and 7 am local time. Aid organisations are concerned about a lack of water and electricity in the city and the fate of hundreds of families forced to flee the offensive. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) have called Sammarrah an emergency situation and have sent, together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), medical supplies, food and water to the city. Relief items have also been delivered to a village called Dorr, a few minutes north, where families which had been forced to flee are staying. Many international aid agencies have left Iraq due to ongoing kidnappings and insecurity. Those who are still in the country are doing what they can to help provide supplies. Some camps have been established by the IRCS, holding nearly 500 families, which are receiving food and medical supplies from NGOs, according to aid agency officials. "Since the first of October they are staying in these camps and some of them were living in the city in areas where the battle was taking place, but this [camp]area is under control," Firdoos al-Abadi, a spokeswoman for the IRCS, told IRIN. Al-Abadi added that her group and other aid agencies had received a letter from Iraq's Human Rights Ministry describing the situation in Samarrah as a 'tragedy' and calling for emergency assistance. The ICRC is sending another convoy of medical supplies and food to the city, but all the aid is being sent through the Iraqi Red Crescent, due to insecurity. "The work together with the Red Crescent is making things easier and also ensures fast delivery for their needs," a Ahmed Rawi, spokesman for the ICRC in Iraq, told IRIN. Heavy gunfire and explosions rocked Samarrah as US and Iraqi forces launched a major assault on Friday to retake control of the insurgents stronghold north of the capital. The streets of the city were totally empty as residents fear growing insecurity and families stayed in their homes afraid that troops might enter at any time searching for terrorists. No shops were open and US tanks and Iraqi National Guard cars are seen all over the city. "Our life has stopped again," Hakmed Abbas, a father of five, told IRIN. "Our children are very scared and there is nothing we can do to protect them," he added. "US and Iraqi forces blocked the roads into the city to prevent insurgents from moving in and out," Maj Neal O'Brien, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division, told IRIN. He added that the combined force of the US Army, the Iraqi army and Iraqi national guard, had secured about three-quarters of the city, including government buildings, police headquarters, a pharmaceuticals factory and two important religious shrines. According to the US military, some 2,000 rebels were believed to be based in the city. The operation in Samarrah came hours after a wave of car bombs in Baghdad which killed at least 55 people, most of them children. Yarmouk Hospital received 42 bodies, including 35 children, said Dr Muhammad Al-Jaboori. The hospital also treated 131 wounded, 72 of them under the age of 14, according to Al-Jaboori. People who have lost their loved ones are now calling for an end to fighting in Iraq. "I lost my daughter and my son yesterday. Life has no more reason to me," Moussa Ahmed, told IRIN while referring to civilian casualities. He begged the insurgents to stop as the fighting with US troops was killing innocent people.