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US marines in Fallujah |
Rome, 20 July (AKI) - US and Iraqi troops have launched another offensive on the
city of Fallujah in the volatile Anbar province in western Iraq. US military leaders
believe a group of guerrillas has established itself in the city once more, taking
advantage of the last few months of relative calm. News of the new operation comes
from aid workers from the Italian Solidarity Consortium (ICS) in Iraq, who are
carrying out monitoring and humanitarian assistance programmes in the area to
help the many citizens displaced by the last military offensive on the city, which
began in November last year.
In the last few days there have been a number of explosions in Fallujah, a
statement from the ICS aid workers says, and the multinational force has closed
the city, to comb it house by house. This has sparked another mass exodus of
civilians. Hundreds of families have already abandoned the city, they report,
"further worsening the humanitarian emergency."
ICS director Rosita Viola, commenting on the latest news from her workers said:
"At the moment in the governorate of Anbar, around 30,000 people are homeless,
in a state of total poverty."
"Over the next few weeks ICS will continue to conduct its planned emergency
programmes, which are vital to responding to the most immediate needs of the
civilian population," she continued.
According to the humanitarian organisation, the secondary effect will be that
of increasing the sense of precariousness among the people displaced by the
previous military operations.
Those who have returned to the city have been starting to rebuild their houses,
but recently there has been a slowdown in the number of people making their
way back to their homes, or what remain of them, because of the fear of new
attacks. Therefore, any new action by troops is certain to increase the level
of fear and distrust in the people, the ICS says.
"What is worrying is the all too real hypothesis that the example of the
citizens of Fallujah will also be followed by those of Ramadi, Hit, Qaim and
all the other cities that have suffered tough attacks by the multinational forces
and Iraqi army in the last few months," the ICS statement points out. "It
is impossible to predict when this will finish, and even harder to say when
the humanitarian emergency situation will start to get better."
When the major military offensive on Fallujah began in November, the Iraqi
Red Crescent Society estimated that some 250,000 of the city's 300,000 population
fled the city. By January, the UN's refugee agency said only 85,000 had returned
to the city to inspect the damage to their homes, and only ten per cent of those
were thought to have stayed
