Doug Lorimer
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a statement on June 20 complaining that access to Ramadi, capital of Iraq's western Anbar province, "is very restricted. As a result, food and medical supplies are running low, public services have almost ground to a halt and residents are reportedly trying to flee the area". The June 11 Los Angeles Times reported that by June 10 US troops had "cordoned off" Ramadi.
The ICRC statement said that most of Ramadi "has been without power since 22 May and, owing to the shortage of fuel, back-up generators can only function for one or two hours a day. Consequently, water stations are unable to supply the city's 300,000 inhabitants or its medical facilities with clean water."
At a Pentagon press briefing in Washington six days earlier, General Carter Ham, deputy director for regional operations for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "I've said up here the past couple times that Ramadi is probably the most contentious city in Iraq, and I think it continues to be that way."
In early April, Tod Pitman, an Associated Press reporter "embedded" with the US forces in Ramadi, described the city as "perhaps the most dangerous place in Iraq [for US soldiers] ... Everyday there are IED [improvised explosive device] blasts, small arms attacks, snipers taking potshots."
On May 22, Pitman wrote: "Guerrillas attack US troops nearly every time they venture out — and hit their bases with gunfire, rockets or mortars when they don't. Though not powerful enough to overrun US positions, insurgents here in the heart of the Sunni Muslim triangle have fought undermanned US and Iraqi [puppet] forces to a virtual stalemate."
AP reported on June 16 that "thousands" of US troops had "planted new outposts in southern Ramadi, seeking to choke off supplies getting to insurgents who control large swaths of Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab city. US commanders said the move wasn't the precursor to a rumored offensive to drive insurgents from Ramadi — but rather an 'isolation' tactic to prevent the fighters from receiving arms and reinforcements from outside."
However, US Army Colonel Sean MacFarland told Antonio Castaneda, another AP reporter in Ramadi, that the two new outposts were "lily pads to push out from" into other parts of Ramadi.
The wire service reported on June 18 that "hundreds" of US troops, backed by fire from an AC-130 gunship, were pushing into Ramadi's eastern Mulaab neighbourhood.
The AC-130 is a version of the C-130 Hercules transport plane that can slowly circle over a target for long periods while pummelling it with side-firing guns, including a 40-millimetre cannon that can fire 120 explosive shells per minute, and a 105mm howitzer, normally a battlefield artillery weapon.
"A large majority of the houses we entered today were vacant. Some people have taken their belongings and moved to the more rural areas around Ramadi, having expected a large coalition operation", Captain Joe Claburn of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division told AP.
The Inter Press Service news agency reported from Ramadi on June 19 that the city's streets "are eerily empty, and it appears that many people have now left the city, although possibly as many as 150,000 still remain in their homes, either because they are too afraid to leave or they have nowhere to go".
IRIN, the news agency of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, reported on June 19 that the Iraqi Red Crescent Society in Baghdad was in the process of sending 100,000 aid packages to families that have fled their homes in Ramadi. "Each 30kg package contains rice, beans and milk, in addition to detergents and sanitary materials", said IRCS president Dr Saad Haqi. "This can supply families with five to six members for 15 days."
From Green Left Weekly, June 28, 2006.
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