MOSUL,
September 9, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Residents of the northern
Iraqi city of Tal Afar has sent out an SOS to the international
community to interfere with the US occupation authorities to stop
their continuing bombing of their devastated city, revealing a
terrible humanitarian situation.
"US
and Iraqi forces are still besieging Tal Afar amid ongoing intensive
bombing, ordering residents of Hassan Kawi and Sarray neighborhoods to
evacuate immediately," a Tal Afar tribal leader told IOL over the
phone Thursday, September 8.
"The
Americans are seemingly bombing the city with chemical weapons,"
he said, adding Tal Afar residents are speaking of suffocations and
other health problems upon exposure to any hit area.
Residents
told IOL over the phone that they saw an ambulance driver trying to
evacuate 10 corpses on a Hassan Kawi street. When he tried to move
them to the morgue, US forces refused and ordered him to speed away.
US
and Iraqi troops have been besieging the city since Saturday,
September 3, and were reportedly gearing up for a large-scale
offensive.
Evacuation
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Even escaping is not a safe option.
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In
a press conference Wednesday, September 7, Major General Mohammed
Ahmed Khalaf Jaboury, Police Chief of Nynwa Province – of which Tal
Afar is a major city – said security forces question evacuees
running out of the city and any 18-year-old or above male fails to
answer any question is detained.
"We
ordered the families to evacuate the Sunni neighbourhood of Saray,
which is believed to be the main stronghold of the insurgents,"
Jaboury added.
Residents
are forced to evacuate the city whether onboard US helicopters or
using their own cars. Those who try to get out on their own have to
pass through checkpoints set and manned by the Shiite Supreme Council
of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq {SCIRI) 's Badr militia.
Reporting
stealing their possessions and other abuses by the Shiite militia,
most remaining residents are forced to board US helicopters.
Those
who are still in the city are gathering up in one of two refugee camps
set up on the suburbs of Tal Afar, where they face serious shortages
of clean water, food and medicine.
The
Fresh US and Iraqi offensive into Tal Afar has sent 90 percent of its
population into panicky flight, while the rest are sending impassioned
SOS messages as they were trapped inside homes by imposed curfews.
"The
current offensive is another episode of Iraqi government violations of
an already reached agreement with residents to end rebellion in the
city peacefully", said Hazem Kallash, deputy chairman of Iraq's
Kurdistan Front.
Fallujah
Scenario
Clashes
between US and Iraqi forces on one side and resistance elements on the
other are not the first to take place in the city, raising fears a
major offensive similar to the devastating one on Fallujah, which was
turned into a ghost city, was under in Tal Afar.
In
August of 2004, Tal Afar was the scene of a deadly US offensive that
killed hundreds of its residents and displaced thousands.
The
United States sees Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, as a conduit for
"foreign fighters and military equipment" coming into Iraq
to help resistance fighters fighting the occupying US forces and the
Shiite-Kurdish-dominated Iraqi government.
