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'Who is taking care of us?'
29/04/2003 08:27 - (SA)
Najaf - Three weeks after Saddam Hussein's fall, unexploded cluster bombs still litter the Iraqi city of Najaf and residents are furious at the United States for failing to take them away.
"My sister-in-law's nose was sliced off by shrapnel, and my two-year-old girl Zahra was hit in the hand and she can no longer move it," said Abbas al-Zalami, a father of three.
"Entire families were killed and now people still get hurt because nobody is clearing the area. Why did the Americans target civilians? They even hit ambulances trying to rescue those injured and killed five medics," he said.
Like other residents interviewed by AFP, he said a furious air assault rained down dozens of bombs on the night of March 27, apparently aimed at a makeshift Iraqi military position nearby.
"I lost my father, two uncles and a cousin," said Haider Musafer, 22, resting on crutches after taking what he said was 26 pieces of shrapnel in his right leg.
His eight-year-old niece Nur, also hit by shrapnel, was wearing a cast on her right arm.
US marine Dave Boulanger, patrolling the area in an army jeep, confirmed that a lot of unexploded ordnance was still in the area.
"It is taking a while to neutralise them because we are short on people," he said, declining to identify them as fragments of cluster bombs or that they were fired by coalition forces.
"We have seen similar scenes all over Iraq, from north to south. There is so much to take care of. It could take up to two weeks or more to neutralize the unexploded ordnance here in Najaf," he said.
The United States has come under criticism from rights groups for its use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan and other conflicts. The weapons explode and release hundreds of smaller bomblets that disperse over a wide area.
Unexploded bombs claimed the lives of at least two US soldiers during the war to topple Saddam, and residents here said that locals were still being badly injured, often when they drive over the remaining munitions.
"Joint Iraqi-US patrols pass by the area daily and we beg them to do something, but they say they know and go on," al-Zaimi said.
The evidence of the power of the bombing is everywhere.
Charred Iraqi army trucks and anti-aircraft rocket launchers lie next to burnt pieces of missiles, and most houses have been riddled with shrapnel and had their windows blown out.
"A missile landed in my courtyard but did not explode. I had to remove it myself and prayed the whole time for it not to go off," said Sheikh al-Halabseh.
The danger has exacerbated the anger many already feel over the chaos that has reigned across the country since Saddam was ousted.
"People here are afraid to come home because there are still unexploded bombs inside their houses," said Saad Hatem.
Another man, Zaman al-Bidiwi, said: "Saddam is gone but then what? Who is taking care of us?"
- AFX
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