Posted on 04/09/2003 4:05:43 PM PDT by withteeth
The International Red Cross has temporarily suspended its humanitarian efforts in Baghdad due to the current chaotic conditions there. A spokesman said the unpredictable situation was making it almost impossible to travel around the city. Ambulances have been unable to get to casualties due to heavy firefights between US troops and pockets of Iraqi resistance. A Canadian Red Cross worker was earlier shot dead after his vehicle was caught in a crossfire. The Red Cross is also warning of worsening conditions in Baghdad's hospitals. Many hospitals are said to operating at breaking point and lacking basic medicines, with some cut off from electricity and water. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said everything was being done to get supplies in. Other aid organisations are also concerned at the lack of fresh water for many of the Iraqi.
By Cahal Milmo
10 April 2003
Independent (UK)
The Red Cross, the last international aid agency working inside Baghdad, suspended its operations after one of its workers was critically wounded in an attack on a convoy attempting to resupply the city's hospitals.
As American troops rolled into the Iraqi capital, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the "extremely dangerous" situation in the city meant it could no longer deliver supplies to medical facilities which have been without water or electricity for three days.
A spokesman for the organisation said: "Our team has not been able move about Baghdad for the last 12 hours. Given the chaotic and totally unpredictable situation in the city, getting from one place to another involves incalculable risks."
The decision was taken after two vehicles carrying large Red Cross flags, which were attempting to reach one of Baghdad's main hospitals, came under fire on Tuesday.
A member of staff, Vatche Arslanian, 48, a Canadian logistics expert, was seriously wounded and had to be abandoned after colleagues trying to rescue him were forced back by gunfire.
Mr Arslanian, who had been part of a team delivering emergency supplies to hospitals and water treatment works, was last night officially listed as missing feared dead. The ICRC said it was not known whether the convoy had been deliberately attacked or had been caught up in crossfire between American and Iraqi forces.
Aid workers in the city said the fighting meant that civilians had been left injured and dying in the open because rescuers were being fired upon as they tried to help any wounded.
Roland Huguenin-Benjamin, part of the Red Cross team in Baghdad, said: "Casualties have been seen on the roads, on some bridges and there was no immediate possibility of evacuating them, for the reason that there was immediate fire as soon as anybody was trying to approach. The problem is the lack of respect for ambulances and respect for casualties – to give allow a minimum of security for people to be evacuated."
The suspension of the ICRC deliveries will cut off the sole source of fresh supplies of medicines and equipment to Baghdad's four main emergency hospitals.
will cut off the sole source of fresh supplies of medicines and equipment to Baghdad's four main emergency hospitals
I hope that will change soon - within the next 12 hours. Apparently, many hospitals are out of pain killers and basic drugs. Prayers for the sick, and those caring for them.
By Tini Tran, AP, in Basra
10 April 2003
Only 50 of 150 doctors at Basra Teaching Hospital showed up for work yesterday – the others stayed at home to protect their families from looters.
The hospital, one of three in the city, is struggling to cope with the flood of war casualties, and British forces are being blamed for the human toll of the war as well as the chaos in the streets.
"We thought when they entered the city, they would prepare an administration to take control," said Dr Janan Peter al-Sabah, the hospital's chief of surgery. "We don't need food or water. What we lack is safety and protection. Our message to the coalition troops is to take responsibility for the security of the people, of the homes, of the facilities."
Basra was calm yesterday, after the civil disorder that broke out on Monday when British forces moved in to the city. Gunmen had stormed the hospital and left with a car and some medical equipment. In response, British soldiers are guarding the buildings and snipers have been placed on rooftops, but doctors say it's not enough.
Oh, it is ? Really ?
You can believe that our soldiers are not taught to indiscriminately fire at anything.
If you believe this, you know nothing about the "rules of engagement" that our soldiers are taught.
Amazing what happens when you stand next to Iraqi machine-gun nests.
Niven's First Law: Never throw s**t at an armed person.
Niven's Second Law: Never stand NEXT to anyone throwing s**t at an armed person.
Let me explain something to you.
When somebody is shooting at me, I don't give a damn if he's shooting from a hotel full of journalists, or even from behind a herd of baby harp seals, I am going to shoot back.
WTF, were the reporters all kin to Hans Blix?
The video from Al-Jazeera is quite telling. You can see spent fifty-caliber machine cartridges flying through the air behind the reporter.
That means that someone RIGHT BEHIND THE REPORTER was shooting at the Americans.
Oh? Name names.
The journalists that died were all immediately adjacent to the machine gun nest. Niven's Second Law applies.
BTW, are you really Baghdad Bob?
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