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=> A glimmer of hope

A glimmer of hope
Posted by Tiglath (Guest) davidchibo@hotmail.com - Wednesday, April 14 2004, 7:08:26 (EDT)
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Baghdad's Muslims rush aid for Fallujah residents
Sadr City sends food, medicine

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Wednesday, April 14, 2004


BAGHDAD: Heeding a call from their imam, Baghdad's Muslims have been rushing food and medical supplies to their local mosque for delivery to the beleaguered residents of Fallujah.

Since the mosque imam in Baghdad's Adhamiya district set up his appeal last week, the response has been phenomenal.

The mosque courtyard has been transformed into a giant warehouse filled with white UN bags containing rice or beans, boxes of vegetables and bottles of oil and water.

In one corner, there are stacks of cans bearing the sign: "USA - refined vegetables - fortified vitamin A."

Under the patio, dozens of buckets containing medicines are piled up, along with containers for blood donation and other surgical equipment.

"It took only an appeal from the imam and the faithful from the neighborhood flocked with supplies and medicines for the besieged residents of Fallujah," said Monder Moslah, a mosque security guard.

On Saturday, a supply convoy sent by ethnic Turkmen from the northern city of Kirkuk arrived, he added, highlighting what he said was a national example of solidarity by all Iraqi communities.

Since US marines launched their onslaught more than a week ago to flush out insurgents, two dozen convoys of five to 10 trucks each have left this mosque for Fallujah west of Baghdad, another mosque security official said.

"May God bless the people of Adhamiya," said a man who escaped Fallujah on the second day of the fighting and who came to the mosque to get some food.

"We had to leave our homes in a hurry without even locking them. We now live in shelters in Baghdad. Without their (Adhamiya residents') help, we would have nothing," said the man who did not give his name.

"From rooftops (in Fallujah), the Americans shoot at everybody. Who can tolerate that? They are acting like (ousted Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein: carrying out collective massacres."

Inside the beleaguered city that once housed 300,000, all shops are closed. Residents are holed up in their homes and running out of food, said Abbas Ibrahim, 30, resident who managed to leave Fallujah Friday.

Some 5,000 families have fled the fighting to seek refuge in surrounding arid areas.

Iraq's long-repressed Shiite majority has reacted generously, with residents of Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City bastion sending truckloads of food and medical supplies to their Sunni compatriots in Fallujah.

Baghdad Shiites are donating blood for Fallujah residents.

Quoting hospital sources in Fallujah, Fouda Rawi, a senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party which is trying to mediate a permanent truce there, said that over 600 Iraqis had been killed and 1,250 wounded in the weeklong US offensive against the insurgents.

But US officials said it was impossible to give exact numbers on civilian casuaties.

"As Muslims, we are brothers. We must defend ourselves. The Sunnis are rising up in their area. We do the same in ours," said imam Amer al-Husseini, a local aide of radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr. "We are united in the same goal: free ourselves from the US occupation."

Iraq's Christian Chaldean minority, which fear an emergence of an Islamic republic, expressed support for the Fallujah residents.

Father Butros Haddad, who heads the Virgin Mary church in Baghdad's Karrada district, said the patriarchate Saturday donated some $1 million to buy food and medicine for Fallujah residents.


By Deborah Pasmantier, Agence France Presse



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