IRAQ: Thousands displaced from Talafar by fighting

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

BAGHDAD, 11 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Thousands of families are fleeing the northern Iraqi city of Talafar, aid workers confirmed, as Coalition forces conduct a military operation against insurgents.

According to the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), the situation is critical and hundreds of families are moving day and night to temporary camps donated and prepared by the aid organisation.

“We need urgently supplies because we have already run out,” Ferdous al-Abadi, spokeswoman for the IRCS, said.

Heavy bombardment and artillery by gun-ship helicopters as well as street fighting could be seen in the al-Saray area of the city, Iraqi officials said.

The operation in the city, some 80 km east of Mosul city, and near the Syrian border, started on 10 September.

With a population of nearly 400,000 residents, some 50,000 families, the city had received information that the operation may continue for a long period and that people should leave within 72 hours from the start of the operation.

Talafar, one of the largest cities inside Ninewa governorate, has witnessed insecurity for the last 18 months due to insurgency that security forces are now trying to quell.

The IRCS called on international humanitarian organisations to help overcome a shortage of medicine and essential materials caused by the unexpected and tragic stampede in a Baghdad district last week.

Food cans, emergency first aid kits, blood bags, body bags, blankets, bed sheets, and stretchers, painkillers and anaesthetics are desperately needed, al-Abadi said.

Based on the last humanitarian report on 10 September, the IRCS said nearly 3,000 families were already displaced in the area between Mosul and Talafar in a village called Abu Maria (Al-Nakhwa).

The camp is 20 km east of Talafar and has a capacity for 500 families only, but the number is expected to increase to 5,000 families.

The camp at present has 40 toilets, 20 water tanks (with a capacity of 1,000 – 1,500 litres each) as well as a medical centre for first aid and emergency procedures.

“The IRCS will be able to provide relief items for 25,000 families when supported by other cooperating organisations, but we need assistance soon and we expect more than 20, 000 families to flee the city in the coming 48 hours,” al-Abadi added.

A few cases of diarrhoea in children were reported in the camps, Ministry of Health officials said, maintaining that they would give full assistance for those who have left the city in search of a more secure place.

A relief convoy was sent to the city on Saturday morning, but according to staff from the IRCS, it was not enough to serve the needs of the population.

[ENDS]