Residents say snipers are firing at random as siege continues
Nancy A. Youssef and Zaineb Obeid, McClatchy Newspapers
The two top U.S. officials in Iraq voiced confidence Monday that Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government would show no favoritism in its efforts to secure the city, even as residents of a Sunni Muslim neighborhood complained that Shiite Iraqi security forces and government-backed militias were preventing them from evacuating wounded and going for food. Eight days after a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive began to take control of the Haifa Street area in central Baghdad, residents said they had no water and no electricity and that people seeking food had been shot at random. They said they could see American soldiers nearby, but that the Americans were making no effort to intervene. ''The Americans are doing nothing, as if they are backing the militias,'' said one resident, who asked to be identified only as Abu Sady, 36, for security reasons. ''This military siege is killing us. ... If this plan continues for one more week, I don't think you will find one family left on Haifa Street.''....
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The two top U.S. officials in Iraq voiced confidence Monday that Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government would show no favoritism in its efforts to secure the city, even as residents of a Sunni Muslim neighborhood complained that Shiite Iraqi security forces and government-backed militias were preventing them from evacuating wounded and going for food. Eight days after a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive began to take control of the Haifa Street area in central Baghdad, residents said they had no water and no electricity and that people seeking food had been shot at random. They said they could see American soldiers nearby, but that the Americans were making no effort to intervene. ''The Americans are doing nothing, as if they are backing the militias,'' said one resident, who asked to be identified only as Abu Sady, 36, for security reasons. ''This military siege is killing us. ... If this plan continues for one more week, I don't think you will find one family left on Haifa Street.''....
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...Almost four years after the American occupation of Iraq, the situation in that country stands as follows: Official reports say about 650,000 Iraqis have been killed since the conflict began, but informal reports put the death toll at closer to one million. As well, more than 1.5 million people are displaced within Iraq; and up to two million Iraqis have fled the country altogether. Some 100 Iraqi civilians are killed every single day. Personal security, health care, education and public services -- including accessibility to clean water, electricity and sewage -- are almost all non-existent or, at best, function at a fraction of pre-occupation standards. Iraq is currently producing around 2.2 million barrels of oil per day, of which 1.5 million barrels are exported; both levels are significantly below pre-invasion levels, according to the Baker-Hamilton report. And as many as 500,000 barrels of oil are stolen, or are otherwise unaccounted for, every day. Annual inflation has skyrocketed to more than 50 per cent; unemployment stands at an appalling 60 per cent; and foreign investment is almost nil...
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