Aid groups: Sadr City devastated by fighting

[slipslidingaway]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20080508_Aid_groups__Sadr_City_devastated_by_fighting.html

Thousands are fleeing amid shortages of food, water and medical care, agency officials said.

By Bradley Brooks

Associated Press

BAGHDAD - "Entire sections of Baghdad's Sadr City district have been left nearly abandoned by civilians fleeing a U.S.-led showdown with Shiite militias and seeking aid after facing shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian groups said yesterday...

Claire Hajaj, a UNICEF spokeswoman based in Jordan, said that up to 150,000 people - including 75,000 children - were isolated in sections of Sadr City "cordoned off by military forces."

...An official with the Iraqi Red Crescent said about 1,200 people who had fled Sadr City were fed Tuesday by the organization. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media...

...U.S. commanders have stressed that they are pushing to restore services - including water, electricity and garbage collection - to areas once the security situation permits. Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said the U.S. military was "responding appropriately" to extremists firing rockets into the Green Zone while "taking precautions to limit the impact on innocent civilians."

[madfloridian]

1. So sad. I found this from last year...

"A second Fallujah" plan exists for Sadr City

What was the Fallujah plan?

...."What of the estimated 50,000 residents who did not leave Falluja? The US military suggested there were a couple of thousand insurgents in the city before the siege, but in the end chose to treat all the remaining inhabitants as enemy combatants.

Treat the citizens as insurgents. And what? Kill them?

I wonder what we don't know about Sadr City.

Sadr City is now a target. There is a difference, a big one. Sadr City has a tightly packed population of about 2 million people.

..."If political avenues are exhausted, the U.S. military has formulated other options, including plans for a wholesale clearing operation in Sadr City that would require a much larger force, but commanders stress that this is a last resort.

..."A second Fallujah plan exists, but we don't want to execute it," a military officer in Baghdad said, referring to the U.S. military offensive in November 2004 to retake the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah in Iraq's western Anbar province. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

[slipslidingaway]

3. Thanks for the link, I cannot believe we continue to fund this and

we are supposed to accept it because additional funding for other projects will be included.

:(


From your link...

May 21, 2007

http://bornatthecrestoftheempire.blogspot.com/2007/05/second-fallujah-in-sadr-city.html

"...I'm not sure if this was "leaked" to pressure the folks in Sadr City, but if they're serious, they'd better look again. Fallujah had only 400,000 residents at the time, and the city is far more spread out.

Sadr City is 2 million people stacked into an apartment block slum.

"Clearing" Sadr City would be impossible with the forces currently available. (Really, take a look at the satellite photos.)"

Photo link
http://bornatthecrestoftheempire.blogspot.com/2007/01/picture-of-day-2_26.html

[madfloridian]

6. It tragic.

What we have done is unreal and unbelievable.

[slipslidingaway]

9. Agree, but great plans for the future...

http://www.juancole.com/2008/05/sadr-city-residents-warned-to-leave.html

"...Apparently the fractious, RPG-wielding slum dwellers are getting in the way of the planned Green Zone golf course, so they have to be removed..."


Luxury hotels and golf: welcome to the Green Zone
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/06/iraq

"A plan by US military planners for the "Tigris Woods Golf and Country Club" in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. Photograph: US Army/AP


...American officials stress that final decisions about reconstruction and development rest with the Iraqi government. Karnowski added that as well as the benefits of renovating and demilitarising an important area of Baghdad, the blueprint would help to create a "zone of influence" around the massive new US Embassy compound being built on the eastern tip of the Green Zone. The $1bn project to move the embassy from Saddam's old presidential palace is planned for completion later this year.

"When you have $1bn hanging out there and 1,000 employees lying around, you kind of want to know who your neighbours are. You want to influence what happens in your neighbourhood over time," Karnowski told Associated Press..."

[DavidDvorkin]

2. That'll wean them away from al Sadr!

Or possibly not.

[slipslidingaway]

4. I'm sure they will love the walls so we can establish security, if

al Sadr would just stop attacking the Green Zone and work with the new government all would be fine.

:eyes:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. Time for McCain to visit Sadr City for one of his shopping spree extravaganzas

He needs to go back to Iraq and walk the streets of Sadr City and buy a few throw rugs so he can tell us how calm and orderly everything is and how that surge is working.

[Disturbed]

7. .."A second Fallujah plan exists, but we don't want to execute it,"

They will execute it when Busholini has the urge to kill more people.

[slipslidingaway]

8. Yes, and for our media to play along :( n/t