FALLUJAH, Jul 31 (IPS) - A tense security situation in this volatile city has worsened after some policemen found bombs planted on the roofs of their houses. Astonishing attacks have been launched against police leaders during the past weeks in Fallujah, 69 km west of...
Most NGOs in Iraq Losing Face
BAGHDAD - Welcomed at first after the US-led invasion in 2003, most NGOs have run into skepticism and mistrust. Few remain to help. Hundreds of local and foreign NGOs became active in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003, after decades of restrictions under the...
Fallujah Braces for Another Assault
FALLUJAH - U.S. and Iraqi forces are preparing another siege of Fallujah under the pretext of combating "terror," residents and officials say. Located 40 mi. west of Baghdad, the city that suffered two devastating U.S. attacks in 2004 has watched security...
Unrest Surfaces in Fallujah Again
FALLUJAH - Security has collapsed again in Fallujah, despite US military claims. Local militias supported by US forces claim to have "cleansed" the city, 70 km to the west of Baghdad, of all insurgency. But the sudden resignation of the city's chief of...
Iraq: The Love Stories Are Gone
As statistics go, at least 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the occupation, now in its fifth year. Every one of them has left behind once loved ones to mourn the loss and to think of what might have been. This is the land of the Arabian Nights, and of love...
‘Special Weapons’ Have a Fallout on Babies in Fallujah
FALLUJAH - Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say. The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing...
Corruption Eats Into Iraqis’ Food Rations
FALLUJAH - Amidst unemployment and impoverishment, Iraqis now face a cutting down of their monthly food ration – much of it already eaten away by official corruption. Iraqis survived the sanctions after the first Gulf War (1990) with the support of rations...
Five Years On, Fallujah in Tatters
FALLUJAH - Fallujah remains a crippled city more than three years after the November 2004 U.S.-led assault. Unemployment and lack of medical care and safe drinking water in the city 35 mi. west of Baghdad remain a continuous problem. Freedom of movement is still...
Iraq: From One Dictator to Another?
BAGHDAD - Many Iraqis have come to believe that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is just as much a dictator as Saddam Hussein was. "Al-Maliki is a dictator who must be removed by all means," 35-year-old Abdul-Riza Hussein, a Mahdi Army member from Sadr...
Iraqis: ‘Surge’ Is a Catastrophe
BAGHDAD - What the US has been calling the success of a "surge," many Iraqis see as evidence of catastrophe. Where US forces point to peace and calm, local Iraqis find an eerie silence. And when US forces speak of a reduction in violence, many Iraqis simply...