Displaced Talafar families living rough - IRCS

The number of families who have fled their homes in Talafar, northern Iraq, due to ongoing fighting between Coalition forces and insurgents has risen to about 5,000, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said. "We are talking 20-25,000 people," Jette Soerensen, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva (ICRC) told IRIN on Saturday. The displaced have taken refuge in surrounding towns and villages. However, while some were staying with friends or relatives, others were living in abandoned villages or small camps, with no access to such basic items as food, water or bedding, the IRCS said in a statement. It called on all those involved in the fighting "to respect the basic rules of international humanitarian law that are applicable in Iraq". The IRCS has set up camps around Talafar to host the displaced families. On Wednesday, it appealed urgently for US $250,000 to help those affected by the fighting, saying it was the only NGO helping them. The money, it said, was needed to buy 50,000 bottles of drinking water, 40,000 jerry cans, 20,000 kitchen sets, 150 first aid kits, 50 first aid bags, 250 portable beds, three ambulances, 50 tents and food for 10,000 families for two weeks. "The IRCS launched the appeal directly to other societies," Soerensen said. "Meantime, we [ICRC] are supporting them by distributing whatever we have." Hundreds of those displaced could be seen in the improvised camps, with the children suffering in the hot weather and without access to clean and potable water. A spokesperson for the Coalition forces had said earlier food and medical assistance could not be delivered to the city yet. "If we allow the entrance of food and medicines to the city we are just feeding the insurgents. Those who are not [insurgents] and are not afraid, will ask to leave. It is not a human disaster but the prevention of it," Lt. Col. Hassan al-Medan, a senior Iraqi officer in the operation and spokesperson, said on Wednesday. The US army said on Tuesday the terrorists who were hiding in the city had suffered hundreds of casualties and were now on the run. Thousands of US forces and Iraqi troops are taking part in the operation to rout insurgents from the city.