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The ongoing tragedy of Fallujah

The consequences of the original "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq back in 2003, continues in all manner of ways.     Fallujah has significantly figured in the ongoing tragedy in Iraq.   The latest, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.....

A displaced Iraqi family outside Fallujah on Friday, after Iraqi government forces evacuated civilians from the city amid the battle against Islamic State militants

"Iraq’s success in uprooting Islamic State militants from Fallujah has fed a humanitarian crisis with some of the more than 80,000 people who fled the city going without shelter and sufficient water amid 115-degree temperatures and sandstorms, aid agencies said Monday.

In four makeshift tent cities housing the displaced, there is only sporadic electricity and a shortage of latrines, the agencies said. At the Habaniya camp west of Fallujah, health care workers said they are treating about 1,200 people a day suffering from malnutrition and other ailments.

“The conditions we are seeing in the camps are miserable, the scenes apocalyptic,” said Nasr Muflahi, the Iraq director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the main aid groups helping Fallujah refugees.

Since the Iraqi government declared Fallujah all but liberated on Friday, some 30,000 people have surged out of the city and into the four camps. Those camps were already brimming with thousands of families who escaped the battle that kicked off in late May.

The influx of new arrivals has put a strain on Iraq’s cash-strapped government and international aid organizations trying to meet the demand for basic needs such as food, potable water and health care.

The Norwegian Refugee Council and the International Organization for Migration said dozens of the recent arrivals are spending their days and nights out in the open desert in searing heat without tents to shelter them.

Even as troops from Iraq's elite forces spoke with reporters about their battlefield successes in Fallujah, a sniper shot showed the situation is still volatile. WSJ's Tamer El-Ghobashy reports.
Some tents in a camp in Amriyat Al Fallujah are being shared by several families and people are getting three liters of water a day, well below the standard of 10 liters, the organizations said."



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