Aid Convoy
Turned Back
From Falluja
By Aljazeera
16 November, 2004
Aljazeera
An
aid convoy has been forced to turn back from the beleaguered city of
Falluja as more evidence emerged of a mounting humanitarian crisis on
the eighth day of a US offensive to crush resistance forces.
The convoy from
Iraq's Red Crescent withdrew from a hospital on the edge of Falluja
on Monday after failing to get permission to deliver supplies to residents
inside the city, a spokeswoman said.
The trucks laden
with food, water and medical supplies will travel instead to villages
around Falluja where tens of thousands of people have set up camp after
fleeing the massive week-old offensive spearheaded by US marines, said
Firdus al-Ubadi.
Relief agencies
are trying to get food, water and medicine to hundreds of families they
say are trapped inside Falluja.
The military said
it was announcing over loudspeakers in the city that civilians needing
medical or other help should seek out US forces.
The International
Red Cross said it was striving to gain access.
"The IRC is making contacts with all the parties involved, the
multinational forces, the Iraqi forces and all other parties in order
to remind them of their international obligations as stated by the international
humanitarian law," said the IRC's Rana Saidany.
These obligations
include the need for treating the wounded, evacuating them from the
battle zone along with facilitating the tasks of medical teams and securing
the safety of the civilian population.
Saidany added: "It
is unacceptable in the 21st century to abandon the wounded stranded
on the streets and bleeding to death while preventing medical teams
from treating them."
Some families have been without water, food and electricity for five
days, according to a spokesman for the Shura Council of the Falluja
Mujahidin.
Abu Saad al-Dulaimi
said US forces were restricting the relief groups to one area.
"We plead to
the conscience of the Islamic world for help," he said.
"There are
massacres in Falluja, there are assassinations, only because the city's
people are protecting their honour and dignity."
Asma Khamis al-Muhannadi,
an assistant doctor who witnessed the US and Iraqi National Guard assault
on Falluja hospital, told Aljazeera that the medical staff received
threats from the interim Iraqi health minister who said if anyone disclosed
information about the raid, they would be arrested or dismissed from
their jobs.
"We were tied
up and beaten despite being unarmed and having only our medical instruments,"
al-Muhannadi said.
"The hospital
was targeted by bombs and rockets. I was with a woman in labour. The
umbilical cord had not yet been cut. At that time, a US solider shouted
at one of the national guardsmen to arrest me and tie my hands while
I was helping the mother to deliver. I will never forget this incident,"
the assistant doctor said.
"I am from
Falluja and I work there. They claimed I was a fighter and stole our
money and mobile phones," she said.
"The troops dragged patients from their beds and pushed them towards
the wall. There were 17 injured people among the patients," al-Muhannadi
said.
"We exited
from the hospital on the second day of the attack, but we could not
return as the main Falluja-Saqlawiya junction was controlled by the
US troops. We saw around 150 women, children and the elderly attacked
by aircraft fire," she added.
"All of us were subject to intense inspection; the soldiers even
examined children's nappies. Two female doctors were forced to totally
undress," she said.
Residents say many
civilians have died and hospitals continue to receive casualties, including
children.
The US military
said it had targeted a fortified underground bunker on Monday with reinforced
tunnels leading to stores of weapons, including an anti-aircraft artillery
gun.
At least five artillery
rounds and air strikes hit the southern portion of the city, and soon
afterwards exchanges of gunfire and blasts could be heard.
The attacks followed
sporadic mortar rounds against resistance targets overnight.
"One mission
early on 15 November attacked a bunker complex in the southernmost unpopulated
section of Falluja after multinational forces discovered an underground
bunker and steel-reinforced tunnels," a US military statement said.
"The tunnels
connected a ring of facilities filled with weapons, an anti-aircraft
artillery gun, bunk beds, a truck and a suspected weapons cache."
The US military
also alleged it had uncovered torture chambers in Falluja, but this
could not be independently substantiated and no pictures have been released
by the US military to verify the claim.
One marine was killed
on Monday, bringing to 39 the number of US soldiers who have died since
the assault on Falluja was launched, according to military figures.
At least five Iraqi
troops have died. US sources put the number of dead fighters at 1200,
but the Shura Council of the Falluja Mujahidin says the figure is closer
to 100.
The claims have
been impossible to verify independently.