Residents flee battered Sadr City in search of safety, food
BAGHDAD - Entire sections of Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district have been largely abandoned by civilians fleeing a US-led showdown with Shi'ite militias, humanitarian groups said yesterday.
Lacking adequate food or medicine, many of the evacuees and those still besieged in their homes are seeking help, said the reports by the agencies, including the UN children's fund. The reports follow grim individual accounts by civilians pouring out of the Sadr City area.
US forces have increased air power and armored patrols in the attempt to cripple Shi'ite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Baghdad base for the Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The battles started in late March after the Iraqi government attacked militias and armed gangs in the southern city of Basra, including some groups with links to Iran, US officials contend.
Claire Hajaj, a UNICEF spokeswoman based in Jordan, said up to 150,000 people - including 75,000 children - were isolated in sections of Sadr City "cordoned off by military forces."
She said that about 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and that some areas of southeastern Sadr City were abandoned.
The US military is trying to weaken the militia grip in the slum and disrupt rocket and mortar strikes from Sadr City on the US-protected Green Zone, which includes the US Embassy and key Iraqi government offices.
The fighting has prevented aid workers from reaching residents of the neighborhood, leading to shortages of water, food, and medicine, Hajaj said.
She noted, however, that the water shortage seems to have abated in recent days, and the Iraqi government and US forces have been able to restore some basic services to certain areas.
Tahseen al-Sheikhly, the spokesman for the civilian side of the Baghdad security operations, told reporters that some groups have exaggerated the number of civilians fleeing Sadr City and that "our figures are far less than these figures." But he did not provide specific numbers.
An official with the Iraqi Red Crescent said about 1,200 people who fled Sadr City were fed by the organization on Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Medical care also has been limited by the fighting, Hajaj said.
She said the Habibiya Maternity Hospital - the only maternity facility in the neighborhood - has essentially shut down, with "access extremely limited because it is in one of the most dangerous, militia-dominated parts" of Sadr City.
"Emergency assistance can not cover all the needs in Sadr City," said Siri Elverland, a spokeswoman in Jordan for the UN's Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs.
She said the "resumption of commercial activity . . . and public service delivery" is essential and can only happen when the fighting is halted.
US commanders have stressed that they are pushing to restore services - water, electricity, garbage collection - to areas once the security situation improves.
