Anbar city abandoned by its inhabitants turned into a military barracks

Anbar city abandoned by its inhabitants turned into a military barracks

Posted 08/10/2014 10:31 AM

Nine months after the bombing, and air strikes and street battles led to heavy losses in Iraq’s Anbar province “forgotten”, has turned the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah to rubble by bombing, have been destroyed, hospitals, homes, schools, mosques, and blew up bridges. Residents and aid workers said residential streets that show the effects of lead may have become deserted.

According to United Nations estimates that nearly 500 thousand people of Anbar residents have left their homes since fighting began between the Islamic state and the Iraqi security forces

And displaced more than two-thirds of those households within the province. Due to the security situation, do not get something noteworthy humanitarian support. In the past week, the Islamic State forces advanced toward the city of Hit, which hosts nearly 100 000 internally displaced people.

The morning Krhot, president of the Anbar Provincial Council that he believed that the province has become “in limbo,” adding, “I did not do the international community something in Anbar. Want them to be more cooperation and assistance to our people. There are a lot of displaced people … we need to medicine and food” .

Death Coming from the sky

Did not start the bombing campaign led by the United States in western Iraq last month to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the region. After the invasion of militants of the Islamic State of large swathes of territory in recent months, their tactics have led to cases of brutal mass exodus.

According to the latest overview of the humanitarian needs, published on September 25 by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there are 360 ​​803 internally displaced people in Anbar as well as 115 000 people in areas controlled by armed groups. In total, were rated 63 percent of the 1.6 million people in the region that they are “in need”, the highest proportion among the provinces. In all parts of Anbar, said 98 percent of the displaced because they lack adequate opportunities to get food.

Assesses some of the displaced with relatives or in host communities, but many of them are sleeping in schools, mosques and unfinished buildings or settlements in the outdoors with limited access to water, food and health care.

Since the month of January, the Iraqi government has used air strikes in an attempt to curb the progress of the Islamic state. The claim groups such as Human Rights Watch that the government has also been used explosive barrels a improvised explosive devices received from the aircraft and loaded with spread when the bombing, causing great damage and injuries. There has been widespread condemnation of the nature of the air campaign which seemingly random and carried out by the Iraqi government in Anbar.

And told Samir Allawi, who at the age of 43 years and has personal experience with air strikes and how he left his family in the eastern city of Fallujah in Anbar in July, days after the bombing of their neighborhood.

He added, “I lost 14 members of my family in one of these bombs random. I can not forget this terrible scene. Was bodies everywhere. There were no gunmen near their home. I do not understand why the innocent become victims of the bombing instead of hard-liners who did not hurt so much from these raids. ”

Live Samir, a father of three sons, now in Sulaimaniya in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, and said he wants to return, but “the situation is still too dangerous, I do not want to lose more of my family members.”

A senior doctor from the university hospital in the city of Ramadi, did not wish to be named for security reasons, “The situation here is getting worse day after day.”

And said “we have seen in recent numbers much larger than the victims as a result of air strikes. Just last week, in the small neighborhood, which Oqtunh, killing two people know them in one day – two engineers and students – were killed and 12 others seriously injured in the fighting. Then, the killing of Gary This week, shot by a sniper. ”

Organization “Islamic state” continues to offer

In various parts of Anbar province, changed the front lines fighting between the government and fighters of the Islamic State an almost daily basis, and there are conflicting reports about who controls every area, but it seems that the militants are gaining more land.

In late September, the organization attacked the Islamic state Saqlawiyah, a government military base north of Fallujah, killing more than 300 Iraqi soldiers, according to reports, and the dissemination of images of the attack on the Internet at a later time.

In spite of the allegations of local government officials in the media that the threat of air strikes forced fighters of the Islamic state to back down, he swept the congregation town of Hit, northwest of Ramadi on October 2 / October, and then captured the town leap on October 4 / October, which is a threat to Assad appointed military base, which is used by Iraqi forces to send troops and supplies to defend the Haditha Dam in the province.

The seizure of the Heat, which is located in the Euphrates River valley, a major victory of the Islamic state, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, and experts believed that the Heat is part of the long-term plan to move to a belt of Baghdad.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), evaluates more than 100 000 internally displaced people in the Heat, have been displaced, many of whom are already three or four times before. The city was one of the few parts of the province has been the delivery of humanitarian aid in recent months.

Displaced people in the wind

He said an aid worker in the Heat that it seems as if the organization of the Islamic state was carried out suicide attacks for some time in parts of the city, but “broke into the different parts of the city, and occupied” on October 2 / October, adding that shortly thereafter began shelling and air raids .

In the month of September, published the United Nations Mission to help Iraq (UNAMI), figures released by the Directorate of Health in Anbar, which shows that 268 civilians have been killed and 796 others wounded in the province during the first eight months of this year.

But some say that number is much higher. Said Krhot of the provincial council that he believed that at least a thousand civilians have been killed, and blamed the Iraqi army for launching indiscriminate attacks.

In September, after the bombing of a hospital in Fallujah, called on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to put an end to all air strikes in civilian areas.

Krhot admitted there were no air raids on civilian areas since then, but he emphasized that the rockets fired by ground forces of the Iraqi army recently landed in residential areas after the attacks carried out by the organization of the Islamic state.

The reality of a desperate

People continue their lives in Anbar as much as possible. The doctor said that the region, which resides in the gray still under government control, but it is feared that the state-controlled Islamic soon, “this city ablaze. Situation is very bad, and my house covered with bullet holes.”

And he said, describing the miserable conditions in the hospital due to lack of medicines and surgical equipment and staff, who fled, many of whom “there is no electric current in the hospital for four months and we rely entirely on generators, but it is difficult to obtain fuel and spare parts.”

The doctor also complained of a shortage in the supply of food, explaining that the prices of basic materials has now increased by between 30 and 100 percent compared to the same time last year. The situation was exacerbated as a result of the small number of people who are still working and receiving salaries.

He continued by saying, “There is a big problem in other medical supplies for chronic conditions such as diabetes and essential medicines for respiratory diseases.”

“Winter is coming and this is a real problem for children and the elderly, because we will not be able to provide them with drugs for the treatment of minor ailments caused by the cold., And I already see patients in my clinic in need of surgery because of their treatment of infections simple, because people can not afford the cost of medicines or access to a doctor. ”

Due to security concerns, managed only a small group of relief organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Iraqi Red Crescent Society and some local groups, from the delivery of the supplies to the people in Anbar.

Last month, the World Food Programme to resume distribution operations in all parts of the Heat after a hiatus of five months, and has received more than 3 thousands of displaced people relief supplies essential that consisted of food and supplies for hygiene and other materials, which the Danish Refugee Council distributed in Ramadi with the help of volunteers from the local community and local authorities.

And still access of aid is extremely limited. Has approved a report published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in 4 Octobermtharin first that “in Anbar province alone, there are 400 000 internally displaced people not be able to humanitarian actors to reach them, but are very limited. While the United Nations and its partners from organizations non-governmental organizations to intensify their efforts to reach the needy, the level of assistance far less than what is required. ”

This is not the first time where they are located Anbar victim of violence. In 2006 and 2007, the majority Sunni province, which shares a long border with Syria, the scene of fierce fighting between the ancestor of the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and American troops mobilized local tribal leaders to flush out militants from the region.

Although the survival of jihadist cells in Anbar, returned strongly to the Islamic State of Anbar in late December, where seized control of parts of Fallujah and Ramadi. It Anbar have moved north to seize Mosul and Tikrit in June, and the declaration of the so-called succession.

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