Page 10 - ATD 16Jan2016

A10
WORLD NEWSSaturday 16 January 2016
In Ramadi:
IS’s use of human shields slowing progress
SUSANNAH GEORGE
Associated Press
RAMADI, Iraq (AP) — Six
times in the past harrowing
month, Um Omar and her
family got a knock on the
door of whatever home
they were occupying in
the extremist-held city of
Ramadi: It was an Islamic
State militant, she said, or-
dering them to pick up and
move with them as human
Maj. Gen. Fadhil Barwari, the commander of the Iraqi Counterterrorism unit in Ramadi smokes a
cigarette at operation center in Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Thurs-
day, Jan. 14, 2016. Barwari says progress on the ground is moving slower than he expected. “I
don’t think its going to take less than a month. The problem now are the civilians, evacuating them
is the main thing slowing our progress.”
shields because the Iraqi
army was approaching.
“Every time the army would
advance, Daesh would
knock on our door and say,
‘OK, time to go,’” the wom-
an said in an interview with
The Associated Press.
The knock came again
Thursday morning in the
Soufiya neighborhood of
northeastern Ramadi, Um
Omar said, and to her sur-
prise it was the counterter-
rorism forces of the Iraqi
military. She and about 60
other people had just been
rescued.
It’s still a little unclear to her tremists have pulled back
what happened to the ex-
tremists, said the woman,
who spoke on condition
she not be identified by
her full name to protect
relatives who may still be
trapped in Ramadi.
Either all the IS fighters
were killed during clashes
Wednesday night, or they
fled further into the neigh-
borhood and didn’t have
time to bring their captives
along to another part of
Ramadi.
The capital of sprawling An-
bar province fell in May to
the IS group, also known by
its Arab acronym Daesh. It
was the biggest setback for
Iraq’s military since the city ruins. The devastating com-
of Mosul fell to the group in
the summer of 2014.
Iraqi troops, working with
the counterterrorism forces,
retook the center of Rama-
di last month with heavy air
support from the U.S.-led
coalition.
Ramadi still cannot be
considered fully liberated,
with pockets of IS fighters
still holed up in half to two- time and resources from
thirds of the city’s neigh-
borhoods in the east and
north.
As Iraqi government forces
have advanced from west
to east from downtown Ra-
madi and expelled IS mili-
tants in December, the ex-
with their civilian captives
as shields, leaving behind
houses booby-trapped
with explosives and road-
side bombs.
Fighters with the elite coun-
terterrorism forces that are
leading operations in the
Anbar provincial capital,
70 miles (115 kilometers)
UN agency says starving Syrian
teen died ‘in front of our eyes’
ZEINA KARAM
west of Baghdad, say the Associated Press
practice is slowing them BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N. children’s agency said Fri-
down and complicating day that it witnessed the death of a teenager who
the already-messy chal- died of starvation “in front of our eyes,” as well as
lenge of house- to-house several cases of severe malnutrition among children
urban warfare. trapped in a besieged Syrian town near Damascus.
Heavy airstrikes and the Hanaa Singer, UNICEF’s representative in Syria, said
Islamic State group’s in a statement that the 16-year-old, identified as
scorched-earth practices Ali, died of malnutrition on Thursday in a clinic in the
have left most of Ramadi in town of Madaya.
Trucks from the U.N. and other humanitarian organi-
bination razed nearly ev- zations entered Madaya on Thursday for the second
ery building along its main time in a week after reports of starvation deaths. The
town has been under siege for months by govern-
ment forces.
Two other communities, the villages of Foua and
Kfarya in northern Syria, besieged by Syrian rebels
were also included in the aid operation.
The death of the teenager as international aid work-
ers were inside Madaya reinforced the scale of the
(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) humanitarian catastrophe in the town and other
besieged areas. Another aid worker who entered
thoroughfare. On most city Madaya, Abeer Pamuk of SOS Children’s Villages in
blocks, no house is spared Syria, said the situation is so devastating that desper-
damage; others are re- ate parents resort to giving children sleeping pills in
duced to rubble. order to calm their hunger.
But as Iraqi forces continue “Their parents had nothing to feed them. So they just
to advance, evacuations chose to let them sleep and forget about their hun-
like the one that brought ger,” she said in a statement from the group.
Um Omar and her fam- “None of the children I saw looked healthy. They all
ily to safety are draining looked pale and skinny. They could barely talk or
walk. Their teeth are black, their gums are bleeding,
the fight to retake territory, and they have lots of health problems with their skin,
according to troops and hair, nails, teeth,” Pamuk added.
commanders. The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to hold an
“The main problem now emergency meeting Friday at the request of West-
are the civilians, that is ern countries trying to press Syria’s warring parties
what’s slowing our prog- to lift sieges on towns where hundreds of thousands
ress,” said Maj. Gen. Fadhil have been cut off from aid and many are starving.
Barwari, the commander of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the de-
the counterterrorism unit in liberate starvation of civilians a “war crime” and on
Ramadi. Thursday urged both the Syrian government and
Working out of a marble- rebels to end the sieges before the commencement
tiled home that his unit has of peace talks scheduled for Jan. 25 in Geneva.
transformed into an op- Ban said the United Nations and its humanitarian
erations center, he juggles partners are able to deliver food to only 1 percent of
phone calls and local TV the 400,000 people under siege in Syria, down from 5
interviews. percent just over a year ago.
Juliette Touma, an Amman-based UNICEF repre-
Continued on page 27 sentative, said the agency’s staff who spent close
to seven hours in Madaya on Thursday are “terribly
shocked.”
Her staff saw “pretty horrific scenes” of malnourish-
ment, including among women, children and the
elderly, she told The Associated Press.
She added, however, that many felt relief at finally
arriving at these hard-to-reach areas. “It is important
right now to maintain this humanitarian access ...
There are 14 other Madayas” in Syria, she said.
Singer, in the statement, said that at the makeshift
hospital UNICEF visited in the town, there were only
two doctors and two health professionals working
under overwhelming conditions.
Meanwhile Russia, which has been conducting air-
strikes in Syria to support its Syrian army allies, said
that Russian airplanes dropped 22 metric tons of
humanitarian cargo over the eastern city of Deir el-
Zour, which has been besieged by the Islamic State
group for a year.