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Plea to lift siege as Falluja toll mounts<br><br>
Thursday 08 April 2004 8:59 AM GMT <br><br>
<br>
<b>Doctors in Falluja want the siege on the town lifted for shifting
patients with serious injuries even as brutal street battles
rage.<br><br>
</b></font><font size=2>Two hundred and eighty people have been killed
since the start of the siege and 400 more injured, said Tahr al-Issawi,
the director of Falluja's hospital on Thursday. <br><br>
"We also know of dead and wounded in various places buried under
rubble, but we cannot reach them because of the fighting," he
said.<br><br>
Clinics in the town, 65km west of Baghdad, are struggling to treat
victims of the US attacks, said Aljazeera's correspondent Ahmad
Mansur.<br><br>
US helicopters and snipers are firing on ambulances and civilian vehicles
trying to take the wounded to clinics or the hospital, the correspondent
said. <br><br>
<br>
"One civilian car trying to reach a clinic hoisted a white flag but
still came under fire," he said.<br><br>
Occupation forces also refused to allow trucks carrying aid, including
medicine, food and water, to enter Falluja on Thursday said Aljazeera's
correspondent Abd al-Qadir Ayad.<br><br>
In a show of unity, thousands of Iraqis had collected the relief material
for delivery.<br><br>
Meanwhile, Muhsin Abd al-Hamid, a member of the US-appointed Iraqi
Governing Council, called on occupation forces to end the bloodshed in
Falluja. <br><br>
Speaking to Aljazeera, al-Hamid condemned the siege and threatened to
withdraw from the council if the fighting did not stop. <br><br>
<b>Street battles<br><br>
</b>Some 40 more injured people, mainly women and children, were admitted
to the hospital on Thursday.<br><br>
US forces besieged the town after last week's ambush in which four
security guards were killed and their bodies mutilated and dragged
through the streets.<br><br>
They have been trying for four days to take control of the town of
300,000 but are facing stiff resistance. <br><br>
Residents have started digging a new cemetery since they are unable to
reach any of the towns cemeteries to bury the victims. According to
Muslim practice the dead need to be buried within 24 hours.
<br><br>
<b>More mosque attacks?<br><br>
</b>US warplanes continue to attack residential areas and circle above
mosques, said Mansur, a day after occupation forces dropped bombs on a
mosque. <br><br>
Initially, military officials said resistance fighters were holed up in
the Abd al-Aziz Samarai mosque, leaving 40 "fighters" dead and
five US marine "casualties".<br><br>
But a marine officer was later forced to admit that US forces had failed
to find any bodies.<br><br>
However, a family in a car outside of the mosque were killed in the
attack. Many civilians have taken refuge in Falluja's mosques. <br><br>
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt defended the occupations attack on a
mosque, warning more of Iraqs mosques could be targeted if they offered
refuge to resistance fighters.<br><br>
An Aljazeera crew, including cameramen Layf Muftaq and Hasan Walid, sound
engineer Sayf al-Din and correspondent Hamid Hadid, are the only
television media personnel inside the town.<br><br>
</font><font size=3><b>Aljazeera<br>
By <br><br>
</b>You can find this article at:<br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79CAAE90-3E7F-4815-B47D-46863A64A7E6.htm" eudora="autourl">http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79CAAE90-3E7F-4815-B47D-46863A64A7E6.htm</a>
<br><br>
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