AID AGENCIES BLOCKED FROM ENTERING SAMARRA

Aid agencies say thay have been prevented from entering the city of Samarra, where a major U.S. and Iraqi military operation is underway.

"Our convoys sent on Sunday and Monday have been prevented from entering the city by U.S. troops and our information from inside is that families are without food, power and potable water, particularly because they cannot leave their homes," noted Abdel Hameed, a spokesperson for the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS).

This, they say, has left hundreds of families without medical assistance and food supplies. "Innocent people and especially children are suffering from a lack of supplies in and on the outskirts of Samarra," said Muhammad al-Daraji, Director of the Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (MHRI).

"U.S. and Iraqi military groups have prevented the entrance of local NGOs as well as the media to show the reality of human rights violation inside it," he added.

According to al-Daraji, no citizens have been allowed to leave the city, some 120 km north of the capital, Baghdad, since the operation began on March 16. U.S. forces along with Iraqi commandos say the operation is necessary to flush out insurgents in the area.

"We have been informed that they are taking the men for interrogation and leaving women and children alone in their homes afraid and desperate for supplies," al-Daraji added.

Nearly 1,200 families have fled the city to Baghdad and are living in abandoned buildings and makeshift camps, according to local NGOs who are monitoring. Few of them have received assistance so far.

Dr Ibraheem Mahmoud, a clinician at the emergency department of the local hospital in Salahuddine governorate, said that they have received telephone calls from inside the city from residents who spoke of dead bodies in streets and injured people without assistance.

"They were desperate and cannot be taken out from there. According to the information we have women and children are also victims," Mahmoud added. "Children are reported to be falling ill with chronic diarrhea and serious stomach problems."

More than 40 people have been treated in the local hospital with injuries caused by the air-strikes and 22 bodies have been taken to the hospital since March 17.

The Ministry of Interior said that no civilians causalities have been reported so far and more than 80 insurgents have been arrested since the operation began on Friday. "No casualties were reported among Iraqi security forces, civilians or coalition units" the U.S. forces press service said.