Aid groups: Sadr City devastated by fighting

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.

The reports by the agencies, including the U.N. children's fund, added to the individual accounts of civilians pouring out of the Sadr City area as clashes intensify.

U.S. forces have increased their use of air power and armored patrols in an attempt to cripple Shiite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Baghdad base for the Mahdi Army, led by the anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The fighting started in late March, after the Iraqi government had begun a crackdown on militias and armed gangs in the southern city of Basra, including some groups the United States says have links to Iran.

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."

She said that about 6,000 people had been forced to flee their homes and that some areas of southeastern Sadr City were virtually abandoned.

The U.S. military is trying to weaken the militias' grip over the area and to disrupt rocket and mortar strikes launched from Sadr City into the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices.

The fighting has prevented aid workers from reaching residents of the neighborhood and in past weeks has led to shortages of water, food and medicine, Hajaj said. She said, however, that the water shortage seemed to have abated in recent days and that the Iraqi government and U.S. forces had been able to restore some basic services to certain areas.

Tahseen al-Sheikhly, spokesman for the civilian side of the Baghdad security operations, said that some groups had exaggerated the number of civilians fleeing Sadr City and that "our figures are far less than these figures." He did not provide specific numbers.

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.

Medical care also has been limited by the fighting, Hajaj said. She said the Habibiya Maternity Hospital - the one maternity medical facility in the neighborhood - had essentially shut down, with "access extremely limited because it is in one of the most dangerous, militia-dominated parts" of Sadr City.

"Emergency assistance cannot cover all the needs in Sadr City," said Siri Elverland, of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She said the "resumption of commercial activity . . . and public-service delivery" was essential and could happen only "when there is a cessation or pause in fighting."

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."

Also yesterday, the military reported that a Marine had been killed in Anbar province. The attack occurred Tuesday. The Marine's death was the fifth reported in the western province in a week.

After months

of stalled talks between the United States and Iran, an impatient Iraqi government said yesterday that it was time for the two to stop trading accusations and come to the table.

Iraqi Foreign Minister

Hoshyar Zebari said his government had proposed four dates for trilateral talks, but he didn't expect talks to resume soon.

The United States

accuses Iran of supplying arms

that are being used to attack U.S. troops. Iran says the United States is unnecessarily bombing Baghdad's Shiite population.

Last year,

the two diplomatic missions in Baghdad held three rounds of talks, the first of their kind in 27 years.

But relations

have soured between Iran and the United States since the Iraqi military's offensive to curb the power of militias in the port city of Basra and a more than five-week battle in the Baghdad Shiite slum of Sadr City.

- McClatchy Newsapers