Security crackdown leaves Samarra without basic necessities

[Barrett808]

Source: LA Times

Security crackdown leaves Samarra without basic necessities
U.S. , Iraqi security measures prompt residents to complain basic necessities have not reached the city for seven days.
By Garrett Therolf, Times Staff Writer
8:43 AM PDT, May 10, 2007

BAGHDAD -- U.S. and Iraqi troops have imposed a strict security crackdown in Samarra, a city at the center of the Sunni insurgency, prompting residents to complain that basic necessities such as drinking water have not reached the city for seven days.

The desperate situation follows incidents last week when militants linked to Al Qaeda menaced the streets of the city by flying black flags and shooting recklessly before a suicide car bomber rammed a car into the police headquarters on Sunday, killing 12 officers, including the police chief, Col. Jaleel Nahi Hassoun.

The governor of Salahuddin province, who has political authority over the city, said U.S. and Iraqi troops reacted too severely and have imposed the vehicle ban against his will in the city of 200,000.

"They are imposing the curfew repeatedly, probably because they received intelligence information about terrorist threats," said Gov. Hamad Humood. He objected to the road closures, saying "the curfew and the indiscriminate detentions have only exacerbated the situation in the city."

...

Dr. Mustafa Abdul Kareem, the head of the pediatrics ward at a Samarra hospital, said the lack of fuel for generators led to equipment failures that killed four children, including two newborns in an incubator. The other two children required transport to Tikrit or Kirkuk, but he said their ambulance was blocked by U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq11may11,1,1358174.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true

[Kagemusha]

1. See, the terrorists do these things for a reason.

They provoke a crackdown like this and end up getting the occupying troops hated much more than the terrorists themselves. They know this is how it works and that's why they keep doing it: because they know that the crackdown is just as useful as the terror.

[Barrett808]

2. Yes, and we just keep stepping right through that trap door.

The incompetence is appalling.

[Igel]

4. The alternative, of course, is to let car bombs go off as

the "terrorists" try to kill police, army (both US and Iraqi), and civilians in hopes of taking control and instigating sectarian warfare.

That, of course, would also be an appalling sign of incompetence.

[Barrett808]

6. We don't call it a "quagmire" for nothing. n/t

[anotherdrew]

3. oh great... more war crimes and collective punishment. I see Putin was right again.

Will any of the fools directing this murderous farce ever pay for their crimes?

[Rose Siding]

5. But Dick, 60m away, had a hot shower and waffles for breakfast

"Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney spent the night 60 miles away with 12,000 U.S. troops stationed near Tikrit at Camp Speicher."