IRCS delivers aid to displaced around Fallujah

As fighting continued in the city of Fallujah 60 km west of Baghdad, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) and other NGOs on Thursday succeeded in delivering the first food and medical supplies to those displaced in areas surrounding the city. However, the organisations are still waiting for authorisation from the Iraqi government and the Coalition forces to enter Fallujah itself, where fierce fighting has been raging for five days as US and Iraqi troops battle to flush out insurgents. Food and medical aid received by the IRCS from other NGOs was distributed on Friday among over 5,000 displaced people in the nearby settlements of Shaklauya and Habanya, where many have been in serious need of basic supplies since the fighting started. Some reports indicate that at least 50 percent of the local population of nearly 300,000 people have fled the city. Firdoos al-Abadi, a spokeswoman for the ICRC, told IRIN that six trucks carrying medicine, water and food had left Baghdad on Thursday morning. She added that they still hadn't been given permission to go inside the city but were hoping this would change by Saturday. "If they give us a green pass, we can run one of the clinics in the city, we have doctors and nurses standing by to help those injured people inside Fallujah," al-Abadi said. She also said that people receiving the supplies outside the city were often in a serious condition and appeared to have been without food for days. Children were kissing the package carriers and women could be seen crying as soon as they saw the convoy approaching them. The United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Society (UAERCS) has also said it will send 90 mt of humanitarian aid to people in Fallujah soon. According to an official from the UAERCS, who declined to be named for security reasons, a convoy of trucks carrying food and two planes with urgent relief supplies would be sent to Iraq as soon as they received permission to leave the International Airport of Baghdad. "It is a part of continued effort to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people," the official added. The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) said that inside the city many injured people were dying due to lack of medical care and that the situation contravened international humanitarian laws. "They are hurting innocent people, who have nothing to do with any of it, they should open a way for us to help the people inside Fallujah," Ahmed Rawi, a spokesman for the ICRC, told IRIN. An Islamic Turkish NGO said on Wednesday it was sending a truck load of baby food to Fallujah. The shipment contained 40,000 meals and clothes. The group is planning to deliver another aid convoy of food and medicine in the next few days, officials said. A spokesman for the US Marines, Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert, told IRIN that NGOs were not being granted permission to enter the city primarily for their own safety. He added the military expected to have the situation virtually under control on Friday, which would make it easier to allow NGOs to enter. "Suspicious activities can be seen everywhere in the city, even in the mosques, for this reason you cannot guarantee total security for them," Gilbert said. According to residents who spoke to IRIN by phone, bodies can be seen everywhere in the city and injured people cannot go the medical clinics because of the curfew imposed by the US troops. They also said that the little food stored had finished and medicines could not be found anywhere. The Ministry of Health said that it was not possible to assess the exact number of dead and injured people inside Fallujah but that casualties were expected to be very high. "Electricity is cut off because the US troops hit the main power station. We don't have water and people are staying at home afraid they might be mistaken for a military target," resident Abu Muhammad told IRIN by phone. "Even with all our efforts and with the delivery of food to the [people] yesterday [Thursday], much more is required, it's a real tragedy what they are doing to innocent people in Fallujah," the IRCS’s al-Abadi said.